Sixty Tory MPs led by Jacob Rees-Mogg are to launch a plan to scrap the Prime Minister’s ‘Soft Brexit’ Chequers proposals and highlight the benefits of a clean exit from the Brussels bloc.
The Brexiteers will publish a series of papers arguing for a trade agreement with the European Union (EU) similar to Canada’s, which would free the United Kingdom of many of the bloc’s goods and trade rules, unlike Theresa May’s ‘Chequers’ plan.
The 100-page document will also lay out solutions to the Northern Irish border question and issues around farming and agriculture, a source told the Daily Telegraph.
According to the BBC, the first papers will address money and migration on Monday, followed by one on Northern Ireland to be published on Wednesday.
The MPs, who are members of the European Research Group (ERG) led by Mr Rees-Mogg, reject claims that the only way to avoid checks on the Irish border is to keep the province or the whole United Kingdom closely aligned with the rules and regulations of the EU’s Single Market and Free Movement regime.
By setting out attractive and feasible alternatives to the Chequers plan, the MPs hope to force Mrs May to change direction, sources said.
Senior Tories including David Davis and Boris Johnson, the former Brexit Secretary and former Foreign Secretary, are expected to back the papers, with the two men having resigned in protest over Mrs May’s plan.
Past polls have shown that Mrs May’s ‘Soft Brexit’ plan is deeply unpopular with the public, including with Conservative Party voters.
Twice as many voters want a clean break from the EU as want to follow the Prime Minister’s plan, a survey showed in mid-July. This included 51 percent of Tory voters who wanted a clean, ‘no deal’ Brexit.
Just days ago, the former Governor of the Bank of England, Lord Mervyn King, said the plan was the “worst of all words” and “Brexit in name only”, while a pro-EU former Cabinet minister called it “less popular than the poll tax”.
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