Leading pro-Europe backbencher Anna Soubry has threatened to leave the Conservative party if an arch-Brexiter such as Jacob Rees-Mogg or Boris Johnson is elected as leader.

In an escalation of continuing party infighting over Europe, the former minister said the prime minister was “in hock to these 35 hard Brexiteers” led by Rees-Mogg over negotiation with the EU.

But in an interview with ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Soubry singled out his rightwing social views as a reason to abandon the party if, as some hope, he is chosen to replace Theresa May.

She said: “Somebody like Jacob [Rees-Mogg], with his views on things like abortion, a man who says he’s had six children and never changed a nappy, somebody who says that even if you were to be raped by your father you wouldn’t have a right to choose to have a termination – I’m sorry, but I couldn’t stay in a party led by somebody like him.”

Soubry also suggested the powerful pro-Brexit European Research Group of MPs, which Rees-Mogg leads, had undue influence in government, forcing May to rule out staying in some form of customs union.

She said: “I’m really cheesed off about the way the whole Brexit thing is going. It feels like – and I think there’s evidence to support this – Theresa is in hock to these 35 hard Brexiteers. They don’t represent my party, but more importantly they don’t represent people who voted leave.”

Souby’s comments come after she urged May to “sling out” arch-Brexiters from the party. Speaking to BBC Newsnight, she said: “If it comes to it, I am not going to stay in a party which has been taken over by the likes of Jacob Rees-Mogg and Boris Johnson. They are not proper Conservatives.

“Something is going to have to give, because if it doesn’t not only will we get Jacob Rees-Mogg as our prime minister, we will get a devastating hard Brexit which will cause huge damage to our economy for generations to come.”



Soubry added: “Unless Theresa stands up and sees off these people she is in real danger of losing huge swathes of not just the parliamentary party but the Conservative party.”

She expanded on the criticism to ITV on Tuesday, claiming the government had no electoral mandate for a hard Brexit.



She said: “We know what people were saying to us on the doorsteps, and it was a rejection of what people perceived as a hard Brexit, and they don’t want that. There’s a way that we can deliver a Brexit that works for our country, and the really interesting thing is the amount of Tory MPs working with Labour MPs, forming that consensus. If we had a vote in parliament, the majority of MPs would not vote for a hard Brexit.”

The former chancellor and prominent leave campaigner Lord Lamont said Soubry’s comments were “ridiculous”. He told the BBC: “I don’t want to be rude about Anna Soubry, but I think she does sometimes tend to go over the top.”



