A member of Jacob Rees-Mogg’s European Research Group was asked six times if they had support for a hard Brexit in the House of Commons, and each time refused to answer.
Anne-Marie Trevelyan, Conservative MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed, was questioned by Labour’s Chuka Umunna about the Tory right’s plans for a hard Brexit that would see the UK completely cut-off its ties with the EU.
Trevelyan, however, would not concede that her group’s plans for Brexit did not have the support of a majority of MPs in the House of Commons.
She continued to ignore Umunna’s questioning, leaving even BBC Politics Live host Andrew Neil exasperated.
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The ERG talk the talk when it comes to Brexit, but they do not have a majority in the Commons for their vision of a destructive hard Brexit. Here is the proof: pic.twitter.com/v4X1gtXzwy
— Chuka Umunna (@ChukaUmunna) October 24, 2018
After the first question she fired back: ‘We have to deliver what the British people asked for.’
In her second response she explained: ‘We chose to run a referendum, it was supported in parliament, and we put it to the people and they gave us their response.’
Chukka explained: ‘Do you think someone like Boris has a greater chance of getting the numbers you need for your Brexit through the House of Commons over Theresa May?’
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Trevelyan still could not answer the question, instead saying ‘I would hope some of your party would support us if they support Brexit!’
Presenter Andrew Neil chipped in ‘now you know how I feel!’
After the fifth and sixth time, Neil said ‘you’ve asked him five times people will make up their own minds.’
One tweeter simply commented on the argument ‘that will be a ‘no’ then!’
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Umunna summarised: ‘There is no majority in the House of Commons for us to leave with no deal at all, and I don’t believe there is a majority for the proposition that Anne-Marie and 39 of her Conservative colleagues put forward for an extreme break, a Canada style deal.’
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