‘Stand up to Brussels bullies’, Dominic Raab tells Theresa May

Former Brexit secretary Dominic Raab says Theresa May must toughen her stance on Brexit or face disaster.

Theresa May leaves Downing Street. Picture: AFP

Former Brexit secretary Dominic Raab yesterday warned that Prime Minister Theresa May has allowed Britain to be “blackmailed and bullied” by Brussels and she should toughen her stance on Brexit or face disaster.

Mr Raab called on Mrs May to show greater “political will” and made a veiled pitch for her job, saying Britain would not look like it is — “frightened of its own shadow” — if he were running the negotiations.

He called on Mrs May to walk away from the talks rather than submit to the “predatory” behaviour of “dark forces” in Brussels.

Mr Raab spoke out as Mrs May faced new threats to her prime ministership:

●● Seven Tory “big beasts” — former foreign secretary Boris Johnson, his successor Jeremy Hunt, returned cabinet minister Amber Rudd, Home Secretary Sajid Javid, former Brexit secretary David Davis, International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt and Mr Raab — are ­actively preparing leadership campaigns and have identified MP backers to drum up votes;

●● Five Brexiteers — Environment Secretary Michael Gove, House of Commons leader Andrea Leadsom, Trade Secretary Liam Fox, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling and Ms Mordaunt — will hold a “breakfast club” meeting tonight to draw up a rival plan to Mrs May’s Brexit deal;

●● Cabinet ministers who support the deal are set to tell Mrs May to renegotiate because they do not believe she can get it through the Commons;

● ● The European Research Group of Brexit hardliners was to last night publish a seven-page document “ripping apart” the deal. It concludes that Mrs May’s plan would mean “the UK will have not left the EU but will instead be ‘half in and half out’ ”;

● ● Yesterday, EU sources said if Britain wanted to extend the transition period by a year, it would cost about £10bn on top of the £39bn “divorce bill” already agreed;

●● Downing Street is on standby for a vote of no confidence in Mrs May as early as tomorrow night, the 28th anniversary of the leadership ballot that finished Margaret Thatcher.

After a week of turmoil an Opinium poll yesterday showed Tory support slipping by five percentage points. That poll and a second ComRes survey put ­Labour ahead, evidence that the Tory civil war is affecting support for the party.

Rebels planning to oust Mrs May had not mustered the 48 ­letters necessary to force a contest by Friday evening.

Steve Baker, the former Brexit minister who is co-ordinating the coup, said more than 50 MPs claim to have submitted a letter, making a contest likely this week.

MPs said a whip and a minister have sent letters to Graham Brady, chairman of the backbench 1922 committee, demanding a vote and several members of the cabinet will vote against Mrs May in a secret ballot. They claim that if more than 100 MPs vote against her, then a delegation of ministers will urge her to resign.

Ms Leadsom spent the weekend drumming up support from other senior ministers and spoke yesterday to Mr Hunt in a bid to get a majority of the cabinet to urge Mrs May to rethink.

She is pressing for Britain to get a new “backstop” deal in which the UK had to secure the support only of Ireland to withdraw from a Customs union rather than all 27 EU countries.

Senior Tories revealed that Mr Johnson was present at three meetings last week where MPs had plotted to remove Mrs May. Two sources claimed Mr Johnson has submitted a letter, but his aides said he had not discussed his intentions with anyone.

Mr Raab’s resignation has made him the main challenger to Mr Johnson as the Brexiteer candidate in a leadership election.

MPs say Attorney-General Geoffrey Cox has also put out feelers to colleagues.

Mr Raab said he would not be submitting a letter of no confidence in Mrs May but made it clear he does not think she has stood up to the “controlling” ­European Commission, which he compared to an “abusive” spouse in a divorce.

In a thinly veiled attack on Mrs May’s caution, he said: “If we cannot close this deal on reasonable terms, we need to be very honest with the country that we will not be bribed and blackmailed or bullied and we will walk away. I think there is one thing that is missing and that is political will and ­resolve. I am not sure that message has ever landed.”

Ministers say Mrs May’s aides expect her to lose a Commons “meaningful vote” on the deal but force it through on a second ballot after the markets crash — a plan branded “kamikaze” by one cabinet source.

The Sunday Times