Deselection looms for Remainer rebel Soubry
A PRO-Remain Tory MP is facing deselection after her constituency chairman asked party members if they were happy with her.
Anna Soubry, who rebelled against the Government on last week’s Brexit vote, could now face a showdown with her local party.
John Doddy, chairman of Broxtowe Conservatives, has written to members in the Nottinghamshire constituency, which voted 52.5 per cent to leave the EU.
His letter says: ‘There has been much talk of the voting activities of our MP Anna Soubry.
‘I have therefore decided to canvas the opinion of members and will summarise the replies anonymously for the executive committee.’
The questions include: ‘Are you happy with your MP?’ and ‘Are you unhappy with your MP?’ followed by tick boxes.
Dr Doddy declined to comment on the leaked membership survey, which was obtained by the Guido Fawkes website. Ahead of the vote last week, Miss Soubry posted a statement on her constituency Facebook page acknowledging she was facing deselection calls.
She insisted most of the demands came from outside her constituency, but acknowledged that many senior figures in her own association ‘would prefer an MP that didn’t trouble the whips and kept their head down on this most divisive of subjects’.
Yesterday, it was reported that rebel Conservative MPs called off their Brexit amendment threat after warnings that they could be kicked out of the party.
Chief whip Julian Smith threatened ‘severe consequences’ if the MPs humiliated the Prime Minister, according to the Mail on Sunday.
The warnings were taken as a threat of deselection, the newspaper reported. Six of the 12 rebels later backed down.