Many Tories feel betrayed by Brexit, claims Heseltine
MICHAEL Heseltine has launched a scathing attack on Theresa May’s handling of Brexit which he said has left a huge number of Tories feeling “appalled and betrayed”.
The Conservative former deputy prime minister dismissed comments by Boris Johnson that it would be fine for the UK to crash out of the EU without a deal as “rubbish”.
But Brexit Secretary David Davis insisted the Government was making contingency plans for such an outcome after MPs warned that failure to put a back-up strategy in place would be a “serious dereliction of duty”.
Lord Heseltine, who was last week sacked as a Government adviser for rebelling over Brexit, insisted he will stay in his party “and fight”. Speaking to ITV’s Peston on Sunday, he said: “The fact is that a huge number of Conservatives are appalled, they feel they have been betrayed by what is going on now. The truth of the matter is, those of us in politics, those who care, we are not performing fleas where the ringmaster says ‘jump’ and we all turn hands up over ourselves. We are not like that.
“We happen to believe, for all sorts of very powerful reasons, that British selfinterest was inextricably interwoven with those of our European allies.”
Pressed on whether he would ever resign from the Tory party, the former Cabinet minister said: “I remember this phrase I think – pick your party, damn your principles. Well I hope I don’t damn my principles, but I won’t leave my party.”
Former minister Anna Soubry, meanwhile, claimed talks could collapse within six months and leave Britain falling off a cliff-edge. But Mr Davis insisted, the country would be ready if the negotiations “go wrong” and said the preparations would stop the country falling off “a cliff edge”.
He told BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show: “We have been planning for the contingency, all the various outcomes, all the possible outcomes of the negotiations.”
The Prime Minister has repeatedly said she would rather walk away without a settlement than agree to a “bad deal”.
Foreign Secretary Mr Johnson said it is “excessively pessimistic”to suggest there is a real possibility Britain will tumble out of the EU with no deal and revert to World Trade Organisation rules.
He insisted a deal is a “very likely” outcome, stressing that the UK has a “robust” economy and a confident negotiating team.