Enter Mogg the peacebroker
Help me save May, and Brexit, says hardliner in stunning U-turn as No.10 braces for poll
BREXIT hardliner Jacob Rees-Mogg emerged last night as Theresa May’s best hope to avert a snap general election – or her forced departure from Downing Street by the spring.
In the wake of the British prime minister’s crushing Commons defeat on her Brexit deal, a group of her most senior allies have ‘wargamed’ a scenario in which Mrs May would seek peace with her rebellious backbenchers by offering to resign by the month of May – in exchange for them dropping their opposition.
It comes as the same allies are frantically selecting policies to include in a ‘short, sharp’ manifesto in the event that Mrs May is forced to call a snap election.
But in a sign that the intensity of opposition could be lessening, Mr Rees-Mogg presents himself as a peacebroker committed to making Mrs May’s deal acceptable to her party.
The powerful chairman of the European Research Group of Tory MPs uses an article in today’s Mail on Sunday to say: ‘If I had to choose between no deal and Mrs May’s original accord, I would have no hesitation of opting for no-deal Brexit – but even Mrs May’s deal would be better than not leaving at all.’
Downing Street was rocked by their loss on Tuesday by 230 votes, which made history as the biggest-ever government defeat in Britain.
Mr Rees-Mogg, who infuriated No.10 by hosting a champagne party at his London townhouse to celebrate the loss, says: ‘The biggest obstacles within the prime minister’s current deal are the backstop [keeping Northern Ireland tied to EU rules] and the £39 bn we currently propose to give to Brussels but for which we get nothing in return.
‘If Mrs May can persuade the EU to show flexibility on these, we could get the deal through the Commons... It is high time for the Tory Party to come together in the national interest.’
Mrs May, who will hold a conference call with her warring cabinet today on the ‘next steps’ for Brexit, is also offered an olive branch today by one of the EU’s most influential figures. Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament’s Brexit negotiator, writes in this newspaper that Mrs May would find ‘an open door’ if she wanted to make changes to the deal but ‘must act soon’. He says that a request to delay Brexit would ‘be assessed in good faith’, but was unlikely to be allowed beyond July 1. He adds: ‘It is time for British leaders to lead.’ Under the ‘May goes in May’ plan, Britain’s prime minister would offer to step down in time for a new leader to take over for the trade talks. One ally said: ‘She would countenance going if it was the only way to protect her legacy.’
However, Downing Street last night insisted that a snap election was not on the table.
A No.10 spokeswoman said: ‘Apart from anything else, there just wouldn’t be time before March 29.’
But a Downing Street source said: ‘No one wants it but if you plot through every route where we are, it is very difficult to see how you get out of this.’
The influential No.10 figure added: ‘I think we can get the deal through Parliament with a heck of a lot of luck but that’s not something we have had a huge supply of over the last two years, so it worries me.’
They added: ‘The biggest mistake we made last time was everyone was more prepared for an election than the party that called one. So there is no point in burying our heads in the sand about this.’
Last night Tory MP Huw Merriman became the first Tory MP to call for an election, saying: ‘When Parliament can’t pass laws, not just on Brexit but on other matters, and the government cannot govern through that, then that’s normally when you have a general election.’
He admitted to the BBC’s Sunday Politics South East that another election would be ‘a total failure’, but added ‘but it won’t be the first time that we’ve had to do that’.
But Tory MPs have erupted over the prospect of a fresh ballot in a their private Whatsapp group, declaring the idea ‘dangerous’.
In messages seen by The Mail on Sunday, Mark Francois vowed ‘never to stand for it’, while Zac Goldsmith raged: ‘Love to know what promises we would be standing on’, while John Howell said ‘we need this like a hole in the head’.
This week Mrs May faces a fresh battle with the House of Commons as Remainers led by Nick Boles and Dominic Grieve unleash a fresh bout of procedure warfare in a bid to wrestle control of Brexit policy from the Conservative government.
In an incendiary development a leaked draft of a Bill proposed by Mr Grieve would allow a minority of just 300 MPs to seize control of Commons business if it was passed and dictate what the government must do, in a move one critic branded ‘constitutional arson’.
However, Labour whips have yet to decide if they will back the move to neuter the government.
A source said: ‘We could be in power within months in a minority government, is this really the best time to rip up the rulebook?’
A Downing Street spokesman said it was ‘totally untrue’ that Mrs May’s allies had discussed a deal under which she would resign by May.
‘May’s deal would be better than not leaving at all’ ‘Is this the best time to rip up the rulebook?’
THE signs are so far only slight, but it is possible the self-obsessed hysteria that has recently infected the UK’s political class has begun to subside. The leading figure in the Tory rebellion against Theresa May, Jacob Rees-Mogg, has now grudgingly accepted that her deal is better than staying in the EU.
In words that might have seemed surprising a few weeks ago, Mr Rees-Mogg (while continuing to prefer the no-deal Brexit that would have disastrous consequences for Ireland) has admitted: ‘Mrs May’s deal would be better than not leaving at all. I don’t agree with those who say the deal is so bad it would be worse than staying in.’
Previously, it was possible to think Mr Rees-Mogg viewed her plan as the work of the devil. It now looks as if Mr ReesMogg, who today protests he has not gone soft, may be preparing to escape from the corner into which he has backed himself. If he does, he will make it easier for dozens of others to do the same.
It also will take pressure off politicians here, as tensions mount between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil over what the latter claims is an unpreparedness for a hard Brexit. The last thing Ireland needs is the divisiveness that has hit UK politics.
Perhaps Mr Rees-Mogg’s new position entered his head while he recovered from the triumphalist champagne party he held after the premier’s plan was crushed last Tuesday. Certainly, something was needed to end the lack of seriousness of so much political conduct in the last few weeks.
British voters are increasingly worried by the approach of the March 29 deadline for leaving the EU. They have begun to fear their politicians care more about their reputations than their country.
Well, now the MPs have had their selfish fun, inflicting a huge defeat on Mrs May while offering absolutely no ideas of their own. And having done that, they have achieved nothing.
The champagne bottles are all empty. The loud voices have gone quiet. The time has arrived for clearing up the mess, which is always the moment where the frivolous people melt away, and the serious dutiful ones take over.