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A string of senior Conservatives, led by Philip Hammond, the chancellor, delivered a sobering message to candidates that many Tory MPs are prepared to take drastic action to stop a no-deal Brexit.
“Any prime minister would find it very difficult to govern if he or she were to pursue a no-deal Brexit without parliament’s permission,” Hammond said, while refusing several times to rule out losing the whip in order to vote against his own prime minister in a confidence motion.
There are fears among Tory moderates that many of the eight declared leadership candidates will adopt hardline Brexit positions to win over the Conservative membership. The highly Eurosceptic selectorate of 160,000 will choose who is to be the next prime minister from a shortlist of two candidates whittled down by MPs.
The leadership hopefuls will also be desperate to win back supporters tempted by Farage’s Brexit party, which is expected to top the European elections, with the Tories pushed as far back as fourth or fifth place.
Johnson and Raab, two of the leading candidates, both said they would take the UK out of the EU at the end of October with a deal or no deal, as they positioned themselves on the hard Brexit side of the contest.
Raab even suggested he would be prepared to ignore the will of parliament in order to do so, telling the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: “It’s very difficult for parliament now to legislate against a no deal, or in favour of a further extension, unless a resolute prime minister is willing to acquiesce in that – and I would not.”
In contrast, Michael Gove, the environment secretary, is pitching himself as a leave supporter who is more willing to compromise on a deal in an attempt to keep the party together.
He threw his hat into the ring to be prime minister on Sunday, saying he was the candidate with both the belief in Brexit and the “wherewithal” to negotiate a better deal with Brussels. That appeared to be a swipe at the organisational skills of Johnson, his old adversary, whom he turned against in the last leadership contest and forced out of the race with a withering critique of his suitability for the job.
Gove, along with most of the other candidates in the Tory leadership contest, is still saying he would keep no deal on the table but has not made leaving at the end of October a red line.
Andrea Leadsom, the former leader of the Commons, has the same position as Raab and Johnson on leaving by the end of October regardless, while Esther McVey, the hardest Brexit candidate, said she wanted a “clean break” no-deal Brexit without even trying to renegotiate the withdrawal agreement.
Jeremy Hunt, the leading candidate among MPs, said he would keep no deal as an option, while using his business experience to negotiate a better deal.
Only Rory Stewart, the international development secretary, and Matt Hancock, the health secretary, have effectively ruled out pursuing a no-deal Brexit and stressed they would be in favour of negotiating a compromise. Hancock said May’s successor must be more “brutally honest” about the “trade-offs” required to get a deal through parliament.
International development secretary and Tory leadership candidate, Rory Stewart, said Boris Johnson had privately told him he ‘was not going for a no-deal exit’ before publicly taking a different position. Photograph: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty
Stewart said a no-deal Brexit was “undeliverable, unnecessary and is going to damage our country” and revealed that Johnson had privately told him that the was “not going for a no-deal exit”, before publicly taking a different position in Switzerland on Friday.
Conservatives on the soft Brexit and remain wings of the party said on Sunday they were serious about stopping a no-deal departure from the EU.
Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, Hammond told the candidates: “Parliament has voted very clearly to oppose a no-deal Brexit. A prime minister who ignores parliament cannot survive very long.” [...]