Former Attorney General Dominic Grieve | Rob Stothard/Getty Images Brexit bill rebel receives death threats Tory MP Dominic Grieve blames media for fueling ‘an atmosphere of crisis and hatred’.

LONDON — A prominent Conservative Brexit rebel said Friday he has passed five death threats that he has received to the police.

Former Attorney General Dominic Grieve, one of 12 MPs who inflicted the first defeat on Theresa May's government on December 13 to give parliament a meaningful vote on a Brexit deal, was pictured with the other Tory MPs who backed the move on the front page of the Daily Mail the following day under the headline "Proud of yourselves?"

It accused the MPs of betraying their leader and Leave voters.

Speaking during an LBC radio phone-in, Grieve said: "Some newspapers certainly seem to me to fuel an atmosphere of crisis and hatred, which isn't justified by rational analysis and that then gets picked up in social media and you get a deluge of death threats.

“If the media think I have done something wrong … the Daily Mail is entitled to express its view on it ... but the manner in which it is done, and the way it is done … has a clear link to the threats you then get."

He denied that his actions had weakened the U.K. prime minister, who concluded the first stage of negotiations in Brussels the following day, predicting she would remain in post until the end of the parliament's term.

"The government wasn't threatened by my act ... my view is the prime minister is likely to be in office till 2022. The only thing which is going to bring down this government is if the DUP [Democratic Unionist Party] were to withdraw from their agreement on supply and confidence, otherwise I don't see any prospect of the current Conservative government being brought down."

The lawyer also warned uncertainty surrounding the Brexit negotiations means they could go on for another seven years.

"We haven't a clue what the long-term relationship between the EU and the U.K. is going to be, and whether or not we can negotiate a relationship which keeps the economic benefits of EU membership whilst getting rid of the things people don't like about it," he said.

"I fear this is going to go on for another five, six, seven years ... the whole process of negotiating a long-term relationship between ourselves and the EU. I don't think it is about to end at the end of next year," he added.