Boris Johnson backs Jacob Rees-Mogg over threat to bring down PM

Foreign secretary Boris Johnson has come to the defence of Jacob Rees-Mogg over his threat to bring down the government if Theresa May does not deliver the Hard Brexit he wants.

Hard Brexiteer Mr Rees-Mogg, tipped as a future Tory leader, insisted he was “confident” that Mrs May would deliver the Brexit he is demanding – with the UK leaving the single market and customs union and outside the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice.

But writing in The Daily Telegraph, he warned the PM that backsliding could result in splitting the party like Sir Robert Peel, who plunged it into the political wilderness for nearly three decades following bitter divisions over trade reforms.

The chairman of the hardline European Research Group of Hard Brexit-backing Tories said: “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.

It’s vital that all MPs are able to air their views on Brexit. Whatever your position, I hope we can all agree that @Jacob_Rees_Mogg is a principled and dedicated MP who wants the best for our country.

— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) July 2, 2018

“At least he did so for a policy that works. At Chequers [Mrs May] must stick to her righteous cause and deliver what she has said she would, she must use her undoubted grace to persevere.”

Mr Rees-Mogg’s intervention prompted a furious backlash from Remain-voting Tories.

Foreign Office minister Sir Alan Duncan accused him of “insolence”, claiming his comments risked “debasing” the government, Tory Party and the country as a whole.

“The ideological right are a minority despite their noise and should pipe down,” he added.

But Mr Johnson came to the defence of Mr Rees-Mogg, insisting that it was “vital that all MPs are able to air their views on Brexit”.

He said Mr Rees-Mogg was a “principled and dedicated MP who wants the best for our country”.

North Dorset MP Simon Hoare said “the hectoring nonsense” and “blackmail” had to stop.

The Conservatives had to wake up to the reality of the parliamentary arithmetic and the potential “calamity” of a Jeremy Corbyn-led government, he added.

Tory MP Vicky Ford – a former MEP and supporter of close ties to Europe – told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “What I would say to Jacob… is 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.”

Conservative MP Nicholas Soames described Mr Rees-Mogg on Twitter as “all gong and no dinner”.

But former Conservative leader and Brexiteer Lord Howard told Today: “The prime minister has made a series of promises, the prime minister has repeatedly said that we must regain control of our laws, our money and our borders.

“I have great confidence in the prime minister. I am sure that she will deliver a Brexit that is entirely consistent with the promises she has made.”

Responding to Mr Rees-Mogg’s comments that Mrs May must stick to the mantra “no deal is better than a bad deal”, Labour MP Virendra Sharma MP, a champion of the anti-Brexit Best for Britain campaign group, said no deal would “decimate our public services and see household incomes plunge”.

“Jacob Rees Mogg knows that,” he said.

“Politicians dogmatically supporting a no-deal outcome must come clean over the likely consequences and stop beating the drum for inevitable economic ruin. Their personal finances may be insulated from the shockwaves no deal would bring, but ordinary families up and down the country would pay a cruel price.

“We must put this decision back into the hands of the people through a public vote on the final Brexit deal. People must be given the choice between the Brexit terms which May negotiates, or staying in our current bespoke deal with the EU.”