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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/jul/02/fellow-tories-accuse-jacob-rees-mogg-blackmail-pm-brexit
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| Fellow Tories accuse Rees-Mogg of trying to blackmail PM on Brexit | Fellow Tories accuse Rees-Mogg of trying to blackmail PM on Brexit |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Conservative ministers and backbenchers have rounded on Jacob Rees-Mogg, calling the leading Brexiter’s threats to the prime minister “hectoring nonsense and blackmail”. | |
| Two Foreign Office ministers, Alistair Burt and Alan Duncan, publicly rebuked Rees-Mogg, after he wrote a Telegraph article warning Theresa May she risked splitting her party like Sir Robert Peel did when pushing through changes to trade policy during parliamentary battles over the repeal of the corn laws in 1846. | |
| Rees-Mogg, who chairs the European Research Group (ERG) of pro-Brexit Tory MPs, wrote: “Theresa May must stand firm for what she herself has promised. One former Tory leader, Sir Robert Peel, decided to break his manifesto pledge and passed legislation with the majority of his party voting the other way. | Rees-Mogg, who chairs the European Research Group (ERG) of pro-Brexit Tory MPs, wrote: “Theresa May must stand firm for what she herself has promised. One former Tory leader, Sir Robert Peel, decided to break his manifesto pledge and passed legislation with the majority of his party voting the other way. |
| “This left the Conservatives out of office for 28 years. At least he did so for a policy that works. At Chequers, [May] must stick to her righteous cause and deliver what she has said she would, she must use her undoubted grace to persevere.” | “This left the Conservatives out of office for 28 years. At least he did so for a policy that works. At Chequers, [May] must stick to her righteous cause and deliver what she has said she would, she must use her undoubted grace to persevere.” |
| Burt accused Rees-Mogg of being part of an “ideological clique” in a tweet after the article was published. “Just tired of this endless threat and counter-threat,” he wrote. “Why don’t we want the best for the UK than for our own ideological cliques? And there are others in this negotiation as far as I’m aware?” | Burt accused Rees-Mogg of being part of an “ideological clique” in a tweet after the article was published. “Just tired of this endless threat and counter-threat,” he wrote. “Why don’t we want the best for the UK than for our own ideological cliques? And there are others in this negotiation as far as I’m aware?” |
| Duncan accused Rees-Mogg of “insolence” and said his “lecturing and threatening the PM is just too much”. He said the MP’s behaviour risked “debasing government, party, country and himself”. | Duncan accused Rees-Mogg of “insolence” and said his “lecturing and threatening the PM is just too much”. He said the MP’s behaviour risked “debasing government, party, country and himself”. |
| “The PM must be given maximum latitude and backing,” he tweeted. “The ideological right are a minority despite their noise and should pipe down.” | “The PM must be given maximum latitude and backing,” he tweeted. “The ideological right are a minority despite their noise and should pipe down.” |
| Criticism also came from Tory backbenchers, including Sir Nicholas Soames, Simon Hoare and Sarah Wollaston, with Soames tweeting Rees-Mogg should “shut up” and “put a sock in it”. | |
| A message for my old friend @Jacob_Rees_Mogg shut up #letthePMdoherjobwithoutthisconstantcarpingputasockinit | A message for my old friend @Jacob_Rees_Mogg shut up #letthePMdoherjobwithoutthisconstantcarpingputasockinit |
| Hoare, the MP for North Dorset, attacked Rees-Mogg’s Peel comparison. “The hectoring nonsense [and] blackmail has to stop, the reality of parliamentary arithmetic dawn and the calamity of a Corbyn government woken up to,” he tweeted. | |
| “Tories are commonsense pragmatists NOT dogmatic vestal virgins. The vast majority of MPs on a [cross]-party basis will do what’s right for the country, jobs, economy and national interest. It’s not an ego-fest and we all need to remember that. | |
| “Peel was also delivering freer trade and cheap bread which the growing industrial towns needed and demanded … Peel put country before party.” | |
| Hoare’s tweets drew further significant support from backbenchers. The Scottish Tory MP Paul Masterton tweeted “well said” and others retweeted the post, including Nick Boles, Nicky Morgan, Simon Hart, Bob Neill, Antoinette Sandbach and the former Cabinet Office minister Ben Gummer, one of the architects of the 2017 Tory manifesto. | |
| Wollaston, part of a contingent of soft Brexit Tory MPs that has sometimes rebelled against the government, said the corn laws were “wrong then just as business-destroying hard Brexit would be wrong now … Trade with our closest neighbours needs to be frictionless and free.” | |
| Wollaston was one of the MPs depicted as “mutineers” on the front of the Telegraph before a vote on the EU withdrawal bill in parliament in December. | |
| She suggested there would be no similar treatment of pro-Brexit MPs who undermined the prime minister, saying they were “repeatedly threatening the PM unless she bends to their will”. | |
| “They should take note; there is no parliamentary majority to just walk away and destroy business with a disastrous hard Brexit,” she tweeted. | “They should take note; there is no parliamentary majority to just walk away and destroy business with a disastrous hard Brexit,” she tweeted. |
| The Tory MP Vicky Ford, a former MEP, said the majority of MPs did not back Rees-Mogg’s stance. “If this becomes a binary choice between staying in the single market and customs union or no deal, then I do not believe there is a majority for no deal,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. | The Tory MP Vicky Ford, a former MEP, said the majority of MPs did not back Rees-Mogg’s stance. “If this becomes a binary choice between staying in the single market and customs union or no deal, then I do not believe there is a majority for no deal,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. |
| The Scottish Conservative Andrew Bowie, who is a member of the ERG, was also cautiously critical, tweeting: “My Conservative party are a commonsense, pragmatic, free trading, liberal party that governs and takes commonsense decisions in the national interest – not in the interests of an ideological clique ... on whatever side of an argument.” | The Scottish Conservative Andrew Bowie, who is a member of the ERG, was also cautiously critical, tweeting: “My Conservative party are a commonsense, pragmatic, free trading, liberal party that governs and takes commonsense decisions in the national interest – not in the interests of an ideological clique ... on whatever side of an argument.” |
| Richard Benyon, another backbencher, said: “I think we would all benefit from a period of silence from the ultras on both ends.” | |
| Downing Street would not comment on whether the prime minister believed Rees-Mogg was undermining the prime minister. “She is focused on delivering the will of the British people,” her spokesman said. | |
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