Tory Brexiteers were openly discussing how to oust Theresa May last night.
Sources at a meeting of the European Research Group said the MPs were deciding what action to take if the Prime Minister refused to drop her Chequers proposals.
‘It was amazing,’ said one. ‘There were 50 people present, openly discussing how to get rid of the PM and literally no one said ‘Oooh no, we mustn’t talk about that’.’
Another source said the conversation continued even when Tory Party whips entered the room. ‘It was brazen – really detailed discussion of how best you game the leadership rules.’
Sources said there was also mockery of a charm offensive in which MPs invited for dinner in Downing Street for briefings on the Chequers plan for Brexit.
As many as 50 Tory MPs have openly discussed how to get rid of Theresa May as Prime Minister
Another MP present said the discussion about Mrs May’s future took up almost half of last night’s meeting.
He said opposition to Chequers had hardened over the summer recess after MPs spent time speaking to constituency members and voters.
‘This is a fight to the death,’ he said. ‘I would be amazed if a leadership contest is not triggered straight after (Tory) conference unless she backs down.’
The level of discontent will alarm Mrs May’s aides who know it takes just 48 MPs to force a confidence vote.
However, senior Tories believe the ERG does not have the numbers to defeat her.
The meeting followed a difficult week for the ERG in which plans to publish a detailed blueprint for an alternative Brexit have been shelved.
It came just hours after Boris Johnson gave his first public show of support by attending an event hosted by its leaders.
Last week, the ERG told journalists it had drawn up a series of announcements to show it had a full alternative to Chequers.
But the plan was dropped after senior members spotted inaccuracies and warned some of the ideas would be seen as eccentric.
Leaked drafts suggested it contained a number of radical ideas, including a Star Wars-style missile defence shield, an expeditionary force to defend the Falklands and dropping all tariffs on food, which the farming establishment claims would destroy British agriculture.
One source said: ‘We had to pull it. We had to make sure every dot and comma was sensible or we would be torn apart. ‘Some of the ideas, such as the Falklands force, were nonsense. That’s got nothing to do with Brexit and should never have been in there.’
Another said some in the group had included their own pet projects, such as massively boosting defence spending, that were unrelated to Brexit.
Several Conservative MPs have already submitted letters of no confidence in the Prime Minister (pictured at a conference in Birmingham yesterday)
The report, entitled A Better Deal For Britain, is now not expected to be published.
The group faced further confusion last night over its plans for resolving the problem of the Northern Ireland border, which are due to be published this morning.
Sources said that an early draft that proposed allowing ‘flying squads’ of tax inspectors to carry out checks away from the border had been dropped.
‘It’s not been our finest week,’ one member of the ERG acknowledged last night.
‘But I wouldn’t write us off. Chequers is not going to get through – we will make sure of that.’
Meanwhile Boris Johnson (pictured at meeting yesterday) said he ‘could not possibly vote for Chequers’
In other developments:
- Mr Johnson threw his weight behind a new report calling for the UK to leave the EU without a deal, and warned: ‘I cannot possibly vote for Chequers’;
- The Economists for Free Trade group said no-deal would let the UK make global trade deals and cut regulation, boosting the economy by £1trillion over 15 years;
- Chancellor Philip Hammond warned the UK would still have to pay much of the £39billion Brexit divorce bill in the event of no deal;
- Whitehall sources said the EU was preparing for an emergency summit in November to hammer out a Brexit deal with the UK amid fears time was running out.
The setback to the ERG’s plans has delighted Downing Street, which sent out loyalists to point out that the party’s Eurosceptic wing no longer claimed to have a fully worked-up alternative plan.
One senior Tory source said: ‘They have been promising an alternative plan since Chequers and we were all ears, if a bit sceptical.
‘Now it turns out they haven’t got one after all.’
Chancellor Philip Hammond (pictured yesterday) warned the UK would still have to pay much of the £39billion Brexit divorce bill in the event of no deal