Tories face fresh row over Brexit as Rees-Mogg attacks government
Outspoken Tory backbencher Jacob Rees-Mogg launched an astonishing broadside against the government last night, accusing it of “abject weakness” over Brexit negotiations.
Rees-Mogg hit out at plans to allow a temporary extension to the UKs membership of the customs union.
The plan – proposed last week as a final resort “backstop” – has won the conditional backing of Cabinet Brexiters Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, with the former urging pro-Leave MPs to give Theresa May “space and time” to get a better deal before time runs out.
However, Rees-Mogg, who heads the powerful European Research Group of Brexit-backing Tory MPs, said the backstop made it “very attractive to the EU not to offer us anything further”.
He added: “Therefore it is essentially a trap.”
Read more: Govt's customs partnership proposal "completely cretinous", says Rees-Mogg
Earlier yesterday, Gove told the BBC he was adamant that a backstop solution would not become permanent. “It means what it says on the tin,” the environment secretary said.
However, speaking on a podcast for the Conservative Home website, Rees-Mogg, who has been tipped as a potential successor to May, accused the government of being happy to “kowtow” to Brussels.
“To go into the negotiations to say to Mr [Michel] Barnier [the EUs leading Brexit negotiator], we will kowtow before you in every way you possibly want if we cannot get everything ready by the due date encourages him to say, just kowtow, Im quite happy… I think it is a sign of abject weakness.”
The North East Somerset MPs comments signal growing unease among Brexit-backing backbenchers over the Prime Ministers ability to lead the UK out of the EU.
Rees-Mogg last night denied he had lost faith in the PM, but said: “I think we need some backbone in these negotiations… I fear were getting to the point where you wonder whether the government really wants to leave at all.”
He also urged May to make preparations for leaving the EU without a deal “as an essential part of the negotiations”, once again repeating that her government had been “weak about that”.
Read more: Rees-Mogg: Government should "rethink" transition deal
In response to the criticism, a Downing Street spokesperson said: “We are absolutely determined to take back control of our borders, our money and our laws and we are making good progress in doing so.”
Yet last night foreign secretary Johnson applied more pressure when he said May must “get on with” Brexit.
During a trip to south America, Johnson said: “The Prime Minister is the custodian of the plan, which is to come out of the customs union, out of the Single Market and to get on with it, to get on with that project with all convenient speed.”
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