Reckless rebels risk destroying their party
IN any sane world, Wednesday night’s decisive win for Theresa May should have earned her – at the very least – a bit of breathing space. Having seen off the botched coup, and knowing her enemies could not move against her for another year, she could have set off for Brussels yesterday – where she hopes to win concessions on the Northern Ireland backstop – with the wind in her sails.
If they were behaving responsibly, her opponents would have accepted defeat and stopped the endless plotting and infighting which has taken their party to the brink of civil war. They might even have been gracious about Mrs May’s decision to stand down as Tory leader before the next election – news many Conservative voters will have received with considerable regret.
But these are far from normal times in the Westminster madhouse, and instead the rebel Eurosceptics could barely wait until the ballot boxes were empty before returning to the fray.
Bizarrely, Jacob Rees-Mogg immediately insisted Mrs May had a constitutional responsibility to quit. No, she doesn’t. Meanwhile, ambitious Tory Dominic Raab questioned how Mrs May could continue as leader. What is it they don’t get about losing?
Those in the European Research Group of Tory backbenchers are vociferous in pointing to the 52 per cent Leave vote in the referendum to justify their demands for a damaging no-deal Brexit.
It is inconsistent, to say the least, to refuse to accept the result of the no confidence vote when Mrs May won by 63 per cent – a vastly more significant margin.
The Mail would go further. What the vote in Mrs May’s favour shows is that the rebels are not even close to convincing their fellow MPs of the merits of their hardline approach.
Their plan, cooked up in what some rebels sickeningly described as a ‘kill room’, was to remove Mrs May, install either Mr Raab or Boris Johnson as Tory leader, and then drive the country off the edge of a cliff. After this week, this plot is in ruins and their options have narrowed sharply.
They can accept Mrs May’s deal which, for all its imperfections, guarantees the UK leaves the European Union in little over 100 days’ time. Or they can vote against it, and take their chances on what a Parliament dominated by Remainers will do if it wrestles control over the Brexit process.
The Mail hopes they will see sense and rally behind the Prime Minister, instead of destroying their party, imperilling Brexit, and – by opening the door to Jeremy Corbyn – causing incalculable damage to the country.