Tories 'plot three Brexiteers' to topple Theresa May - including Jacob Rees-Mogg as Chancellor
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Loading... - Cherry Fer
- 05 Feb 2021
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Senior Tories are plotting to get rid of Theresa May and install a ‘Brexit dream team’ in Number 10, it was reported last night.
Plotters want to push ‘three Brexiteers’ - Boris Johnson as Prime Minister, Michael Gove as his deputy and Jacob Rees-Mogg as Chancellor - to the top of Government, unless Mrs May gives up on the idea of keeping Britain in a customs union with the EU, according to the Sunday Times.
Meanwhile, a former senior civil servant has likened attacks on Treasury officials by Brexiteers to ’1930s Germany’
Lord Turnbull told the Observer the claims Treasury officials have tried to ‘fiddle the figures’ to prove Brexit will be a disaster were reminiscent of the “stab in the back” myth which emerged in Germany after the first world war and was later taken up by the Nazis.
He said: “After the first world war there was an armistice, but the German army was then treated as the losers. Then, at the start of the Nazi era, the 'stab-in-the back' theme developed.
"It argued that 'our great army was never defeated, but it was stabbed in the back by the civilians, liberals, communists, socialists and Jews'. This is what I think these critics are trying to do. They are losing the argument in the sense that they are unable to make their extravagant promises stack up, and so they turn and say: 'Things would be OK if the civil service weren't obstructing us'.
"When you don't succeed, you find someone to blame for your failure."
On Friday, Brexit minister Steve Baker was forced to apologise in the House of Commons for repeating the conspiracy theory that civil servants had deliberately formulated analysis to create a gloomy financial forecast for Brexit Britain.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd told the BBC's Andrew Marr Mr Baker had had "an interesting week."
She insited ministers would not be intimidated by rampant Brexiteers threatening Theresa May's leadership.
Amid warnings from Brexiteers that Mrs May must stand by her commitment to leave the EU customs union as well as the single market, she said ministers were committed to getting a deal which would enable Britain to strike free trade deals with other countries while maintaining "frictionless" trade with the EU.
"I have a surprise for the Brexiteers, which is the committee that meets in order to help make these decisions is more united than they think," she told BBC1's The Andrew Marr Show.
"We meet in the committee. We meet privately for discussions. I think that we will arrive at something which suits us all.
"There will be choices to be made within that, but we all want the same thing which is to arrive at a deal which works for the UK."
Theresa May’s Brexit war cabinet will meet on Wednesday and Thursday this week, to decide on the UK’s negotiating stance for the next round of talks.
It follows reports that Mrs May’s Brexit advisors had been quietly developing plans to maintain a customs union with Europe after Brexit.
But Jacob Rees-Mogg told the Times: “We do not wish to be in 'a' customs union, 'the' customs union or 'an' customs union" - and repeated his claim that Treasury officials were trying to “fiddle the figures”.
According to the Times, the ‘Brexit dream team’ would also involve former International Development minister Priti Patel, who was forced to resign over her ‘freelance diplomacy’ in Israel being given a cabinet level job.
And rumours are still swirling that at least one senior minister is poised to “do a Heseltine” and spark off a move to topple Mrs May with a very public resignation.
Conservative Party chairman Brandon Lewis said Mrs May was the right person to lead the party and called on MPs to rally behind her.
"Theresa May is the right person to lead our party. She is who the public want to see deliver a good Brexit for the country and has actually got a better poll rating than the leader of the opposition,'' he told BBC1's Sunday Politics programme.
"I think all of us across our party should be uniting behind our leader, our Prime Minister Theresa May, who is the right person to do the job.''
