Nineteen Remain-supporting Tory MPs have written to Theresa May condemning their Brexiteer colleagues as “highly irresponsible” for urging her to walk away from the negotiating table, BuzzFeed News has learned.



Three former cabinet ministers – Nicky Morgan, Dominic Grieve, and Stephen Crabb – and four select committee chairs are among the Tory backbenchers who signed a letter to May on Wednesday, urging her to ignore Eurosceptics such as Iain Duncan Smith and Jacob Rees-Mogg who are pushing for a much tougher stance in the Brexit talks.

It came after several prominent Brexiteers used May’s weekly appearance at Prime Minister’s Questions to ratchet up the pressure on the prime minister over a series of concessions in the last 48 hours that they see as her giving in too easily to Brussels.

On Tuesday night, BuzzFeed News reported that Tory MPs who want a softer Brexit believe the furore over the Northern Irish border this week has changed the terms of the debate and opened an opportunity for them to press for closer alignment with the EU after Britain leaves.

In their letter, the Tory moderates urged May not to be swayed by the growing pressure from their colleagues to entertain a “no deal” scenario.

“In particular it is highly irresponsible to seek to dictate terms which could lead to the UK walking away from these negotiations,” the 19 MPs wrote, according to a copy of the letter obtained by BuzzFeed News.

If the UK crashes out without a deal, it will, they warned May, “lead to great uncertainty for EU citizens living here and UK citizens living in the EU, higher costs and reduced choice for consumers, disruption at our ports and borders and grave questions about how cross-border contracts are to be fulfilled.”

The backbenchers pledged their support for May and urged her to take her time to get right the “most important [negotiations] in the UK’s modern history” and to secure a deal that “puts the interests of the UK economy and household finances first”.

In addition to the former cabinet ministers, the signatories include Anna Soubry, the former business minister; Sarah Wollaston, chair of the health select committee; Bob Neill, who chairs the justice committee; the former solicitor general Oliver Heald; former culture minister Ed Vaizey; former justice minister Jonathan Djanogly; and Johnny Mercer, one of the party’s rising stars.