Tory rising star blasts Chequers plan and says Theresa May can't lead party into next election
3 min read
Conservative rising star Johnny Mercer has attacked Theresa May’s Brexit plan as the “worst of all words” and said the PM cannot lead the Tories into the next election.
The backbencher, who backed a Remain vote at the EU referendum, said the Government's Chequers agreement, which sets out to keep close ties to the EU, was not what the country voted for in 2016.
In a stinging blast on the PM's negotiating position, he said the pledge to achieve regulatory alignment of goods with Europe in particular was “absolutely insane”.
“It’s totally in character with this current administration, i.e. it’s right in the middle, it doesn’t commit either way really, and you look at things like the alignment on goods, that’s insane, isn’t it?," he told Conservative Home.
“It’s absolutely insane. To hold the referendum, and not to deliver that, but crucially not to be seen to deliver that, would mean wilderness for the Conservatives for quite some time.
“I don’t have any red lines on Brexit per se, I think we have to deliver what people voted for and I don’t think Chequers is that…”
The ex-soldier, who took his Plymouth Moor View seat from Labour in 2015, also responded to whether Mrs May should lead the party into the next election.
“No. But I also don’t think that changing Prime Minister now is the right thing to do. I think she’s got a tough job. We need to support her,” he said.
“But that is a two-way street and Number 10 need to do everything they can do to bring the party with them. This idea of diktats from Number Ten is I’m afraid poor politics. I’ve seen a lot of it in my short career.
“I’m always amazed that people don’t really seem to understand, particularly when they’re in government and in Number 10, that you achieve nothing on your own. You have to bring people with you.
However Mr Mercer also claimed to be "profoundly disturbed by the complete breakdown of discipline in the parliamentary party".
“Nobody votes for split parties. And all this kind of bickering in public is really unseemly. I’m all up for really robust discussions in private," he added.
He also hit out at “self-important” colleagues who have threatened to walk out on the party if Boris Johnson were to succeed Theresa May as leader.
“That’s insane, isn’t it? It’s absolutely insane. I think people do run away with a sense of self-importance in Parliament,” he said.
“I mean, if they leave, what’s really going to change? I could leave now. I’m genuinely ashamed of the way Conservatives treat defence at the moment.
"I could walk away. What would that achieve? You know, go home and feel all pious about my position. What a joke. Wouldn’t change a single life.”
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