Restore the whip to expelled MPs, urges Hague

FORMER TORY leader William Hague says politicians expelled from the Conservatives must be returned to the party if they vote in support of Boris Johnson’s current Brexit deal.

The Prime Minister has urged MPs to back his final bid to force through legislation in time for the UK to leave the EU with an agreement on October 31.

Mr Johnson removed the whip from 21 of his party’s MPs after they helped defeat the Government on a Bill to seize control of the Commons order paper on September 3.

Lord Hague said: “The decision to remove the whip from them was a great error, and some of them have now been lost to the Liberals and elsewhere, but those who vote for the deal should be readmitted to their party.

“By agreeing to that, Boris Johnson can achieve not only a sensible Brexit deal but also the reuniting of the Conservative family.

“Such a pulling together of Tories will be in the nick of time,” he wrote in a column for The Daily Telegraph, adding that Mr Johnson would next have to govern in the absence of a majority or seek victory in a General Election.

Lord Hague appeared to echo a call by former Prime Minister John Major last month to reinstate the rebel MPs.

Failure to do this would mean the Conservatives would “cease to be a broad-based nations party, and be seen as a mean minded sect”, Sir John said.

The MPs losing the whip has caused problems for Mr Johnson as he has battled to get support in the Commons.

As the DUP failed to back his Brexit deal the lost votes of his colleagues became more important than ever.

Some Labour MPs have pledged to back the deal.