Stop Boris campaign launched by Tory moderates opposed to
no-deal Brexit
Former foreign secretary attacked as dishonest by leadership
candidate Rory Stewart
Michael Savage, Jamie Doward and Toby Helm
Sat 25 May 2019 20.00 BST Last modified on Sun 26 May 2019
00.00 BST
A campaign to stop Boris Johnson becoming prime minister and
taking the country into a no-deal Brexit was launched by moderate cabinet
ministers on Saturday as the first shots were fired in the Tory contest to
succeed Theresa May in Downing Street.
After May bowed to pressure on Friday and announced she
would resign as Tory leader within two weeks, justice secretary David Gauke and
international development secretary Rory Stewart condemned Johnson’s readiness
to embrace a no-deal, saying it would be hugely damaging to the national
interest.
The move, part of a concerted “anti-Johnson” push by
opponents of a hard Brexit, followed comments by the former foreign secretary
on Friday, soon after May’s resignation speech in Downing Street, that the UK
would definitely leave the EU “deal or no deal” on 31 October if he became
leader in July.
The remark infuriated the soft-Brexit wing of the party,
with some MPs and ministers even warning that there would be “serious numbers”
of moderate Conservatives who would be ready to vote down a Johnson government
if he set the country on a path to no deal.
In a clear attack on Johnson, Gauke, writing in today’s
Observer, warns that candidates who fail to acknowledge the “enormously
harmful” effects of crashing out of the EU will fuel populism and risk doing
untold harm to the economy and national interest.
“All those that do have such aspirations have a
responsibility to set out their approach to Brexit, which is anchored in the
hard realities of the situation. We should not pretend that leaving the
European Union without a deal will be anything other than enormously harmful to
our economy, weaken our security relationships and threaten the integrity of
the union,” said Gauke.
His comments come ahead of the release of European election
results, which are expected to show Nigel Farage’s Brexit party trouncing the
Conservatives.
“There is too often
reluctance in pointing out the likely outcome of no deal. The pretence by
people who should know better that no deal is somehow manageable – or could be
addressed simply by ‘proper preparation’ – has only encouraged a growing part
of the population to be unwilling to make any kind of accommodation with the
EU. Loose talk about no deal has helped give credibility to the simplistic
slogans of the Brexit party.”
The warnings by Gauke – expected to be endorsed by the
chancellor, Philip Hammond, in media interviews – came after Stewart, who has
declared his intention to stand, tore into Johnson and said he would refuse to
serve in a government under his leadership.
Stewart said: “I spoke to Boris, I suppose, about two weeks
ago and I thought at the time he had assured me that he wouldn’t push for a
no-deal Brexit. So, we had a conversation about 20, 25 minutes and I left the
room reassured by him that he wouldn’t do this.
“But it now seems that he is coming out for a no-deal
Brexit. I think it would be a huge mistake. Damaging, unnecessary, and I think
also dishonest.”
The warnings came as senior moderate Tories grew
increasingly alarmed at signs that Johnson is already winning over MPs who fear
that, if they do not back him, a more hardline candidate will emerge as the
champion of pro-Brexit Tories in parliament and in the country.
One senior Tory source said Johnson held appeal because he
was seen by fellow MPs and Tory members as a winner after Theresa May, whose
disastrous 2017 election campaign rid the party of its majority. “The
unpalatable truth about the situation is that whether we like it or not, in
terms of marginal seat polling, Boris is still outperforming everyone else.”
On Saturday the list of candidates entering the race grew as
health secretary Matt Hancock threw his hat into the ring, saying he believed
May had not been clear enough about the trade-offs required in reaching a
Brexit deal.
“She didn’t start by levelling with people,” Hancock said.
“I think it is much, much easier to bring people together behind a proposal if
you are straightforward in advance.”
Former Brexit secretary Dominic Raab also formally entered
the race with a call for a “new direction”.
The MP for Esher and Walton, who resigned over May’s
withdrawal agreement, told the Mail on Sunday: “The country now feels stuck in
the mud, humiliated by Brussels and incapable of finding a way forward. The
prime minister has announced her resignation. It’s time for a new direction.”
Foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt and ex-Commons leader Andrea
Leadsom are the latest heavyweights to have also announced bids for the Tory
crown.
Writing on theguardian.com, former cabinet minister Justine
Greening said the Conservative party now faced “electoral oblivion” as a new
leader would “test its hard Brexit theory to destruction”. Greening, who backs
a second referendum, said that the party was engaged in “a debate with itself
about what type of electoral cyanide to take”.
Dominic Grieve, the former attorney general, said: “Whoever
gets the leadership of the party, a new leader in itself does not solve the
crisis we are facing. It does not appear likely that there is a majority in
parliament for any deal and there is clearly a majority against a no-deal
Brexit. That suggests the only two options available are a general election or
a referendum to resolve the matter.”
The Tory party is simply debating which sort of electoral
cyanide to take
Justine Greening
This Brexit-focused leadership race is the wrong contest at
the wrong time – change is now coming from outside parliament
Sat 25 May 2019 20.01 BST Last modified on Sat 25 May 2019
20.26 BST
The Conservative party in parliament and 120,000 members
will shortly be picking a new leader and, in doing so, a new prime minister.
There will be more runners and riders than Doncaster races. The party wants a
hard Brexit leader and that cannot be me. I believe the only way out of
Britain’s crisis is a second referendum – and I’d campaign for Remain.
Like the rest of the country, I see the Conservative party
engaging in a debate with itself about what type of electoral cyanide to take.
The country is in crisis and yet this latest distraction strategy of a
leadership election sees us continuing to avoid confronting two ultimate
challenges the Conservative party – first, a viable route out of the mess
Britain has got into on Brexit; and second, the fact that our traditional voter
base is dwindling and we’re seen as out of touch with new generations of
voters.
Whatever your view on Brexit referendums, I believe the
Conservative party will never win another election by pursuing a hard Brexit
strategy. It didn’t work in 2017. And now we are being outperformed by the
Brexit party with a better salesman, a clearer message and more motivated
voters. Our existing core vote is being cannibalised, and this is destroying us
from the inside out. Yet it still seems that the Conservative party needs to
test its hard Brexit theory to destruction under a new leader – a new leader
who will continue to face a paralysed government and a gridlocked parliament,
which will reject a hard Brexit deal just as it did the prime minister’s deal.
At the same time, we are also still failing to confront the
basic fact that generations of voters under 40 are simply not voting
Conservative. I represent the second-youngest demographic constituency in the
country – Putney in south-west London. In my constituency, the average voter is
aged 37 or 38. I took this seat from Labour and have held on to it four times
under three Conservative leaders – Michael Howard, David Cameron and Theresa
May – but only by successfully reaching out well beyond our shrinking core
vote. As long as the Conservative party denies these people a say on Brexit,
they will reject us. This all adds up to electoral oblivion.
Once the Conservative party has hit rock bottom, it will
face a hard choice. Change or die. Be relevant and survive. Or don’t. But being
relevant means giving voters like mine a say on Brexit and taking their
priorities on housing, inequality, health, education and the environment and
making them ours. However, for now it seems, the Conservative party’s journey
towards electoral rock bottom must run its course.
If it had been a leadership contest about confronting these
hard choices, I would have stood; instead it’s just a hard Brexit beauty
parade. So I will not.
What matters to the country more is a revolution on social
mobility and equality of opportunity – and change is now coming from outside
this deadlocked parliament. That’s why I set up the Social Mobility Pledge last
year to work with business, schools and communities to provide more
opportunities for more young people. It builds on the work I did as secretary
of state for education. Our businesses can be engines of change, playing a
transformational role in creating opportunity in our country. Companies big and
small are committing to partner with schools to help raise aspiration, offer
work experience or an apprenticeship, and make sure their recruitment is fair
and unbiased. In just over a year, and with cross-party support, 250 companies
employing 2.5 million employees have signed up.
Together, this coalition of the willing is actually making a
difference on the ground, from Bradford and Hull to Sunderland and Manchester.
We are systematically sharing best practice about what works on social mobility
to create a race to the top. The practical solutions are out there and we’re
using them to boost opportunities for millions of young people who don’t find
enough of them on their doorstep.
The real debate about how we transform Britain is beyond any
single political party or leadership candidate. The answers to social mobility
don’t lie in the Westminster bubble; they are out in communities across our
country. The solutions will fundamentally change the status quo and be a break
from the past, a radical agenda to create a different and better version of
Britain than the one we see today. What we need is system change, one that
profoundly recreates Britain as the first country in the world to achieve
equality of opportunity.
That’s why, although it may change in the future, for now
and for me, this Conservative party’s hard Brexit leadership race is the wrong
contest at the wrong time.
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