Brexiteers' Rees-Mogg, Hughes and Fabricant ready to back PM's deal
Jacob Rees-Mogg has hinted he is ready to back the Prime Minister’s EU Withdrawal Agreement, warning that “no Brexit” was fast becoming a reality.
The leading Conservative Eurosceptic said that Theresa May would “not deliver a ‘no deal’ Brexit” and claimed that MPs were facing an eventual choice between the PM’s deal or staying in the EU.
“Whether we are there yet is another matter, but I have always thought that no deal is better than Mrs May’s deal, but Mrs May’s deal is better than not leaving at all,” he said.
He added that “leaving the European Union, even leaving it inadequately and having work to do afterwards is better than not leaving at all”.
Mr Rees-Mogg, who heads the pro-Brexit European Research Group (ERG), said that Brexit may now need to be viewed as “a process rather than an event”. It was, he said, a “process of unravelling and diverging which will take time”.
His comments came as the ERG splintered over tactics, with some of his colleagues still determined to oppose the deal.
However, Walsall North MP Eddie Hughes said he was considering backing the deal, as did Lichfield MP Michael Fabricant.
Mr Hughes said: "I'm certainly looking at the Withdrawal Agreement more sympathetically in light of the way circumstances have changed since I voted against it."
Mr Fabricant said he had come to the "dreadful conclusion" that supporting the deal was the only was of securing Brexit.
“A new PM can then negotiate a better and more distanced relationship with the EU after Brexit," he said.
“Of course, this is the least worst option but the only practical way forward for now.”
