Brexiteer MPs planning to force through no-deal even if backstop is removed, Tory former minister says

Moderate Tories are facing a 'moment of choice' as Boris Johnson takes Britain towards a no-deal Brexit, former minister warns

Moderate Conservatives have warned that hardline Brexiteers are determined to “force no-deal on the country” after a senior European Research Group official said its members would vote down a deal with Brussels even if the controversial backstop was removed.

One former minister said Boris Johnson had made himself “the willing prisoner” of the group of eurosceptic backbenchers and was doing everything he could to make a “catastrophic” no-deal happen.

The new prime minister has made the removal of the backstop - designed to keep the Irish border open after Brexit, but branded “undemocratic” by the Johnson administration - a red line before he will enter talks with Brussels on a new EU withdrawal deal.

But ERG vice-chairman Mark Francois said that even this will not be enough to win the votes of members of the group, thought to number 60 or more Tory backbenchers.

Mr Francois told a Telegraph podcast that “more than enough” ERG members would vote against it to ensure the defeat of the agreement in Commons, even if the backstop was stripped out or subjected to a time limit.

The former shadow Europe minister declined to put a number on potential rebels, but told Chopper’s Brexit Podcast: “I think there would be more than enough to make sure it didn’t go through.”

With no proposals from the government for an entirely new agreement renegotiated from scratch, the only other option available for meeting Mr Johnson’s promise of EU withdrawal by Halloween would be a no-deal Brexit.

Mr Francois said he hoped that no withdrawal agreement would be put before the Commons, as this would result in a “running parliamentary war”, with opponents of a hard Brexit using procedural mechanisms and amendments to block it or water it down.

Mark Francois (AFP)

“You’d have weeks and weeks of people like (Dominic) Grieve and (Sir Oliver) Letwin and co tabling wrecking amendments,” he said.

"You’d have a running parliamentary war probably for at least a month and I don’t believe that any sensible government would want that in the run up to 31 October, so in practical terms I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

He said Mr Johnson had been "very clear" in a meeting with the ERG before the first round of MPs' voting in the leadership election that Theresa May's withdrawal agreement was "dead".

"He was absolutely emphatic about it, so we took him at his word," said Mr Francois. "I don’t think you could revive the Withdrawal Agreement realistically.

"Even if you took the backstop out, there are too many other things that are wrong with it.”

Tory former minister Guto Bebb, who quit Theresa May’s government over Brexit, said Conservative MPs were approaching a moment of decision over whether they will allow Mr Johnson and the ERG to deliver a cliff-edge withdrawal, with no agreement on issues like the Irish border and expats’ rights and no transition period.

“Moderate, sensible, Conservative MPs are now facing a clear choice,” said the Aberconwy MP, a leading supporter of the People’s Vote campaign for a Final Say referendum.

“We have a Government that claims it wants a deal, but it is doing everything to make a disastrous no-deal happen.

Guto Bebb (PA)

“That Government is a willing prisoner of an ERG faction that is determined to force no-deal on the country, even though it is a million miles away from what was promised in 2016 and nobody voted for the catastrophe that no-deal will bring. “On the other hand, they can join forces with the growing number of patriotic and pragmatic Conservatives who realise that the country must always come first, ahead of any party or faction, and who are backing a democratic Final Say for the people on Brexit.

“Pro-business Conservatives recognise what a disaster no-deal would be and, even as the Government turns the ratchet towards a crash-out exit, our numbers are growing all the time.”