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Conservative minister likens Brexiteers to 'ants' as divisions in Tory party continue to erupt

'After the apocalypse, all that will be left will be ants and Tory MPs complaining about Europe and their leader'

Ashley Cowburn
Political Correspondent
Thursday 13 December 2018 10:31 EST
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A minister has likened Tory Brexiteers to "ants" as deep divisions in the Conservative Party continue to be exposed in the wake of a failed vote of no confidence in Theresa May.

Alistair Burt, a foreign office minister who voted Remain, said the only things that will survive an apocalypse would be the insects and "Tory MPs complaining about Europe and their leader."

His remarks came after a dramatic 24 hours in Westminster, with the prime minister surviving a bruising vote of no confidence from members of her own party by 200-117 votes, leaving her already-fragile premiership in a weakened position.

Despite ultimately winning the vote, Jacob Rees-Mogg, a vocal critic of the prime minister and hardline Brexiteer, insisted it was still possible for Ms May to resign as leader.

"You may remember that Margaret Thatcher ... said 'We fight on, we fight to win'," he told BBC's Radio 4 Today programme. "Nobody was tougher than Mrs Thatcher and the next day she resigned. So, it's not impossible."

But Mr Burt - one of the party's leading pro-Europeans - posted on his Twitter account: "They never, ever stop. Votes against them, letters going in late - nothing matters to the ERG [European Research Group].

"After the apocalypse, all that will be left will be ants and Tory MPs complaining about Europe and their leader."

He was posting his stark message in response to a clip of Mr Rees-Mogg telling Newsnight the vote was "much worse" than the prime minister thought, adding an "overwhelming majority of backbenchers have voted against her".

Former cabinet minister Nicky Morgan, who supported the prime minister, even suggested the party may split, telling the BBC on Thursday: "I think there's an inevitability that some of these people - the hardest Brexiteers - are going to walk.

"There may be some sort of reconfiguration of parties on the right of the UK political spectrum and that may be something we are going to have to accept in order to get a Brexit deal through the House of Commons."

Brexiteers also took to the airwaves after the vote of no confidence, hitting out at the chancellor Philip Hammond, who described the wing of the party as "extremists" during Wednesday's febrile atmosphere.

Former party leader Iain Duncan Smith - whose Commons office was reportedly used as an HQ by rebel Tories during Wednesday's voting - told the Chancellor to "moderate your language".

"I have one simple message for the Chancellor: When you start turning on your own party and making accusations about them, that's the beginning of the end for your party," Mr Duncan Smith told Radio 4's Today programme.

One of Mr Hammond's Cabinet colleagues, Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay, distanced himself from the comment, telling Today: "I think all of us say sometimes things in interviews which we perhaps could have phrased in a better way. It's not the phraseology I would have used."

Both Mr Duncan Smith and Mr Rees-Mogg denied reports that the rebels had nicknamed their Commons base for the vote "the kill zone", with the ERG chair claiming the "deeply disagreeable" moniker was invented by May supporters in the hope of discrediting them.

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