A former minister has said there are 30 Tory MPs plotting to stop a no-deal Brexit, as Conservative leader candidate Boris Johnson has said there cannot be any more “fake” Brexit deadlines.
Speaking on Ridge on Sunday, Sam Gyimah MP said that “30-plus” MPs will “stop the new prime minister from proroguing [suspending] parliament to deliver no deal” and will use “legislative mechanisms” to force an alternative to leaving the European Union in a clean break on October 31st if London cannot arrange an exit deal with Brussels.
On Remainer MP told The Telegraph: “Anything around 30 is going to be a significant issue for the PM to deal with.”
While the Remain-supporting MP said that he would not vote against the Government in a confidence motion, The Guardian notes that that may become an option for anti-Brexit Conservatives should all other efforts fail to stop or delay the UK leaving the EU for a third time.
The comments came as former attorney-general Dominic Grieve said Remainer Tories could hijack the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) bill, telling Radio 5 Live on Sunday it was “perfectly legitimate” to use the bill to discuss the outcomes of a no-deal Brexit, which scaremongering Remainers maintain would separate Northern Ireland from the rest of the United Kingdom.
Grieve told Radio 5 Live on Sunday: “Northern Ireland and Brexit go rather closely together. The chances are, if Brexit goes through, a no-deal Brexit, it is going to be the end of Northern Ireland’s union with the United Kingdom, with serious political consequences flowing from it.”
MPs are set to debate the Northern Ireland bill on Monday, with readings to continue into October and possibly until January 2020, the deadline for resuming power-sharing in the country.
A third Remainer plot could be afoot, with former party leadership contender Rory Stewart saying that he would help create an “alternative parliament” to stop no-deal Brexit, and said that a former speaker such as Betty Boothroyd could be brought in to oversee the shadow parliament if likely future party leader and prime minister Boris Johnson prorogues parliament to ensure Brexit is delivered by the deadline.
Writing for Brexit Central on Monday, Mr Johnson warned that politicians cannot turn Halloween into another “fake” Brexit deadline, reiterating that the UK must leave the EU on October 31st with or without a deal, warning that failing to do so would not only be a betrayal of the country that voted to leave in 2016, but would hand an election victory to the “proto-Marxist” Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
“More of the same means more Brexit dithering and delay, more uncertainty for business and continuing division in our country. Kick the can and we kick the bucket. That means only one thing: the proto-Marxist, Chavez-worshipping, anti-Semitism-appeasing Jeremy Corbyn. That’s the consequence of more of the same.
“We need a change of direction. That’s why we must treat 31st October as a real deadline for leaving the EU, come what may, not a fake one,” the former foreign secretary wrote.