Hardliners urged to ‘wake up’ to reality as Tory divisions deepen

JACOB Rees-Mogg yesterday urged Brexiteers to ‘wake up from their No Deal dreams’ as cracks on the Tories’ Eurosceptic wing deepened.

A number of senior Eurosceptics, led by former Cabinet ministers Iain Duncan Smith and Owen Paterson, yesterday urged Theresa May to abandon the European elections and take Britain out of the EU at the end of next month.

But Mr Rees-Mogg, chairman of the European Research Group, instead backed Eurosceptic commentator Iain Martin’s view that the prospects of a No Deal Brexit were all-but gone.

In an article for The Times headlined ‘Diehards must wake from No Deal dreams’, Mr Martin said that, after two Brexit delays, it was clear Parliament would never accept No Deal. He urged Brexiteers to back Mrs May’s deal, saying: ‘If Leavers want to win, if they still want to leave the EU, it involves accepting that No Deal at any costs is nothing like a majority position across Britain.’

Fellow Brexiteer Daniel Kawczynski, who quit the ERG this month, suggested its verbal assaults on Mrs May were motivated in part by sexism, adding: ‘I think there’s some misogynism there.’

And he warned that those still refusing to back the deal were in danger of destroying the Tory party, saying: ‘If this national humiliation goes on and we don’t get this deal across the line, we will be punished, and we will lose credibility for a generation.’

But ERG deputy chairman Steve Baker said he would never back down and vote for the deal. He added: ‘Doing the wrong thing because you fear worse from others is not a reason. Surrendering to pressure... I’m just not doing it.’

Mr Paterson highlighted a clause in this week’s deal to delay Brexit until October 31, in which the UK would be forced to leave with No Deal on June 1 if it failed to hold European elections. ‘It is [a] win-win,’ he claimed.