Jacob Rees-Mogg ramps up bid to force Tory no-confidence vote as he brands May’s Brexit U-turn a ‘humiliation’ and says she must take personal responsibility for it
- Theresa May has delayed vote on Brexit deal as she faced catastrophic defeat
- The PM was condemned by MPs in the Commons after humiliating climbdown
- Jacob Rees-Mogg led Brexiteer criticism saying the PM must ‘govern or quit’
Jacob Rees-Mogg today ramped up his bid to oust Theresa May as leader – branding her Brexit U-turn a ‘humiliation’ which has left her deal ‘defeated’.
The Tory MP and leading Brexiteer said Conservatives are fed up at the feeling of ‘drift’ and total lack of direction coming from No10.
He branded the Government a ‘mess’ and said the PM’s decision to pull the crunch vote on her Brexit deal has increased the likelihood the UK will crash out of Brussels with no deal.
And he laid the blame squarely at Mrs May’s feet – saying the Brexit deal was her policy and she must take responsibility for it.
Emerging from a meeting of the powerful Brexit-backing European Research Group in parliament tonight, he said: ‘This deal has been defeated hasn’t it? The Prime Minister said she was pulling it saying the vote couldn’t be won.’
He stepped up his attack as Mrs May scrambled to try to keep her grip on power as after humiliatingly pulling the vote on her deal.
Tory Eurosceptic Jacob Rees-Mogg (pictured) stepped up condemnation of the PM as she scrambles to keep her grip on power
Humiliated May goes back to Brussels: May says she will seek…
Donald Tusk warns the EU will NOT renegotiate legal text of…
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Mr Rees-Mogg added: ‘I think the likelihood of leaving without a Withdrawal Agreement has gone up.
‘But I think we should aim for a managed no deal, and I have made clear and will happily reiterate – we need a new Prime Minister to do that.
If you look at today, this is the failure of the Prime Minister’s policy. The Withdrawal Agreement was her policy, two Dexeu secretaries resigned because they could not support her policy.
‘It is personally identified with her.
EU court rules Britain CAN just cancel the Article 50 Brexit process
European Court of Justice judge Carl Gustav Fernlund read out the ruling on Article 50 at the court in Luxembourg today (pictured)
EU judges delivered a boost for Remainer rebels today by ruling that Britain can unilaterally cancel Brexit.
The European Court of Justice decided that Article 50 can be withdrawn by the UK without permission from other member states.
Britain would keep its current terms of membership if it quit the process – meaning keeping the rebate, the opt out from the Euro and exemptions from the Schengen passport-free zone.
Today’s ruling will encourage hopes from pro-EU MPs that a second referendum can be held to stop the UK from leaving the bloc altogether.
But Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the ruling was ‘irrelevant’ as it was ‘certainly not the intention of the government’ to delay Brexit.
The case was brought by a cross-party group of Scottish politicians together with lawyer Jolyon Maugham QC, director of the Good Law Project.
‘She is the one who has led the government to this defeat, she is the one who ought to take responsibility for it.’
While he said that even if Mrs May goes back to Brussels and gets them to tear up the hated Irish backstop she will not have solved al her problems – urging her to also hold back some of the £39billion divorce bill until a free trade deal is struck.
Earlier he had demanded Mrs May ‘governs or quits’ today as he warned her Brexit deal is ‘undeliverable’.
Mrs May faced a barrage of attacks in the Commons today as MP after MP from across parties lined up to slam Mrs May’s plans in the Commons this afternoon.
The DUP complained that the PM does not ‘get it’ and her Withdrawal Agreement will ‘never’ be acceptable to Parliament.
Jeremy Corbyn insisted the government is in ‘disarray’ and she must ‘make way’ for Labour to take power, while the Pound plunged further against the US dollar.
The premier was also given an extraordinary dressing down by Speaker John Bercow who accused her of ‘discourtesy’ for abandoning the vote after four days of debate – urging her to show ‘maturity’ by giving MPs their say.
But some of the most stinging criticism came from Mr Rees-Mogg, the chair of the Conservative ERG bloc.
The MP, who is among the Tories who have put in no-confidence letters in the PM, said in a statement: ‘What has two years of Theresa May doing Brexit amounted to?
‘An undeliverable deal parliament would roundly reject, if the Prime Minister has the gumption to allow it to go before the House of Commons.’
‘This is not governing, it risks putting Jeremy Corbyn into government by failing to deliver Brexit. We cannot continue like this. The Prime Minister must either govern or quit.’
The PM faced MPs after finally bowing to massive pressure to delay the crunch vote which had been due tomorrow.
Instead said she will tour European capitals and then go back to Brussels to try to secure sweeteners that might buy off huge opposition to the package.
She insisted her blueprint was still the ‘best deal negotiable’, and said she still planned to put it to a vote once ‘reassurances’ had been secured on the Irish border backstop – but implied that might not happen before January 21.
In words that raise doubts about whether the tweaks will be enough, Mrs May made clear she is not demanding the EU drops the backstop.
MP after MP from across parties lined up to slam Mrs May’s plans in the Commons this afternoon (pictured)
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