Jacob Rees-Mogg elected to lead influential pro-Brexit Tory group of MPs

Jacob Rees-Mogg has been elected as the new leader of an influential group of pro-Brexit Tory backbenchers.

The North East Somerset MP will head the European Research Group (ERG), which was formed by Eurosceptic Conservatives and campaigns for a hardline approach to Brexit. Its members have urged the Government to take a tougher stance during negotiations with Brussels.

Both of the group’s recent leaders, Steve Baker and Suella Fernandes, have been made ministers at the Department for Exiting the European Union.

The new role will give Mr Rees-Mogg, an advocate of a hard Brexit, new influence over the process of Britain’s withdrawal from the EU.

After being elected, he confirmed he will use the position to campaign for Theresa May’s plan to remove Britain from the EU single market and customs union.

“I am delighted to have been elected in succession to Suella Fernandes and Steve Baker who were both superb chairmen,” he said. “In this role I am keen to help the Government implement the principles laid down by the Prime Minister, Mrs Theresa May, in her Lancaster House speech. It is especially important to achieve control of our laws, control immigration and achieve new trade agreements with other countries.

“The ERG speaks individually not with the collective view but has considerable support across the parliamentary party. As chairman I intend to be helpful, vigorous and supportive towards government policy of making a success of Brexit.”

Mr Rees-Mogg has been tipped as a future Conservative leadership candidate and would be likely to secure support from the right of the Tory party in a contest. He is popular among party members and has built a reputation as an entertaining speaker.

Critics, however, say his eccentricity masks hardline right-wing views. It emerged last month that the Old Etonian had recently met with Steve Bannon, Donald Trump’s former chief strategist and previously the chairman of right wing website Breitbart News, to discuss how conservative movements could prosper in the UK and US.

The pro-Europe Open Britain campaign said Mr Rees-Mogg’s election to head the ERG was like allowing a “hungry fox” to enter a chicken coop.

The campaign’s director, James McGrory, said: “The Government being offered help with Brexit by Jacob Rees-Mogg is like a farmer being offered assistance with their chicken coop by a hungry fox.

“For Brextremists like Rees-Mogg, yanking out of the single market and customs union is only the start of a hard-line agenda that includes deregulation and the stripping away consumer protections and workers’ rights.

“The last two chairs of the ERG are now ministers. If recent history is anything to go by, it won’t be long before Jacob Rees-Mogg goes from backseat driving the Government’s agenda to front-of-house at the Brexit Department.”