Brexit rebels to fight new battle for Britain
BREXIT pressure group Leave Means Leave is to be relaunched next month in an attempt to force Theresa May into pushing for a clearer break with the EU, leading Eurosceptics said last night.
The organisation, which grew out of the EU referendum’s Vote Leave campaign, plans a nationwide blitz to rally opposition to the Prime Minister’s plan for close customs links with Brussels.
Insiders say donations totalling hundreds of thousands of pounds have been collected for a war chest.
And much of the cash is said to have been given by Conservative Party donors disillusioned with the Government’s current position in Brexit negotiations.
John Longworth, a former head of the British Chambers of Commerce and co-chair of Vote Leave, said: “We’re going to relaunch our campaign to bring it to the people.”
Leave Means Leave had been set up to ensure a “clean, swift Brexit”, Mr Longworth said. He added: “The swiftness of Brexit has disappeared. The cleanness of Brexit has been sullied by the Chequers deal which is totally unacceptable and outrageous.”
Mr Longworth accused Mrs May of “heading for Brexit in name only”.
He said: “This is a massive fraud on the electorate which is being dressed up as the UK leaving. In actual fact, we’ll be a vassal state of the EU if we sign up to the Chequers deal. It is only going to get worse as we give more concessions.”
Fellow co-chair and business leader Richard Tice said: “We won the battle of the referendum but given what’s happened in the two years since, we haven’t won the war. We’ve been fundraising among donors large and small and we’ve been astonished by the positive generosity of people who feel something has got to change and Chequers has got to be stopped.
“We’ve been raising significant money, hundreds of thousands of pounds, and that’s growing.
“We’ve got real plans to take that campaign to the people so that Westminster politicians really understand the anger and the fury that’s out there on the streets.”
Donors are asking why they should support a party that is “trying to sell us a pup”, he said.
He added that they are talking to Brexiteer MPs of all parties. “They all know this is a sell-out. We’re fighting a new battle for Britain.
“None of us imagined that, more than two years on from the referendum, we would have to refight the battle for Brexit. The Chequers plan is a con, a sell-out, carefully planned and cleverly worded.”