The European Research Group (ERG) was noted for its close co-operation and careful planning, often carried out using online messaging app WhatsApp. Now MPs, appalled that Prime Minister Boris Johnson is willing to leave the EU with no deal, want to give Brexiteers a taste of their own medicine. A Tory pro-second referendum source said Remainer colleagues had “taken account” of the ERG’s “disciplined approach” and cross-party support and would use co-ordination to fight any no-deal plans.
Saying the “numbers are simply not there” for Mr Johnson’s government, the source said: “There is no doubt a no-deal Brexit can be stopped.”
Remainers hope the return to the backbenches of top Tories, either sacked by or who refused to serve under Mr Johnson, will aid efforts to stop a no-deal exit.
A Labour source said: “It’s about being co-ordinated and it’s about working together, joining forces and defeating this hard-Right government.
“We have got the leaders of [the Vote Leave] campaign firmly at the heart of our Government and that is terrifying. The only way to defeat that is to join forces.”
Remainer MPs are now waiting to see if former ministers join the cross-party plotting on WhatsApp groups.
A pro-EU source said: “If the membership of those WhatsApp groups now start to [include] former Cabinet ministers and senior ministers, I think Boris is in for a whole world of trouble.”
But ex-Brexit minister David Jones said of Remainer efforts to borrow from the ERG playbook: “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” Describing how the ERG could wield such influence, he said: “It was quite simple. We actually believed in taking the UK out of the EU and weren’t prepared to compromise.
“Some of us did, but the nucleus, now called ‘the Spartans’, simply refused because they recognised that if Brexit was to mean anything, it couldn’t be delivered by the withdrawal agreement, so therefore we put a stop to it.”
ERG stalwart Craig Mackinlay doubted pro-EU Tories would risk bringing down the Government because it could mean Jeremy Corbyn moving into Downing Street. He said: “We’ve got a new leader with a new mandate, a mandate from a majority of MPs, a very big mandate from the electorate, and I think we’ll start to see something of a bounce in the polls in favour of the Conservatives.
Shamed MP finally quits parliament
Controversial MP Jared O’Mara, who has been accused of sexual harassment, has said he will resign in September.
The departure of the 37-year-old Sheffield Hallam independent MP will spark a by-election in the fiercely-contested seat.
Mr O’Mara said: “Let everyone be assured that I will be tendering my resignation via the official parliamentary procedure as soon as term restarts. I am not in any fit state to continue and nor would that be appropriate if I was.
“I reiterate my apology to my constituents, the people of Sheffield and the people of the UK as a whole.”
Gareth Arnold, Mr O’Mara’s ex-chief of staff, resigned earlier this week and it later emerged that a 20-year-old woman employed by the MP had accused him of sexual harassment.
Mr O’Mara became his constituency’s first Labour MP in 2017, ousting then deputy prime minister Nick Clegg.
But Labour withdrew the whip after apparently sexist and homophobic comments made online emerged.
Mr O’Mara was reinstated, but quit the party, saying he had been “made unfairly to feel like a criminal”.
Will there be an October election?
Boris Johnson may push for a general election in the week Labour is due to hold its annual conference in Brighton, according to party sources.
Thousands of Labour delegates plan to converge on the seafront from October 21 to 25. But there is speculation an election could be held then, ahead of the October 31 deadline for leaving the EU.
A senior frontbench Labour source said there were suspicions that Mr Johnson would seek a personal mandate from the electorate that week.
The Prime Minister, the source said, would be able to campaign from a position of “power” but there was also the challenge of having to fight a well-funded Brexit Party led by Nigel Farage.
Mr Johnson has said he will “absolutely not” call an election before the October 31 deadline, but Labour MPs are readying themselves to go to the polls.
Chris Evans, Labour MP for Islwyn, said: “As we have seen in the past, he changes his mind as much as he changes his socks.
“I think it would be a typical Boris move to try and steal the limelight.
“Either way, if he does call an election he won’t be Prime Minister for much longer.”
A second Labour source was in no doubt that a general election was “imminent”.
They added: “If it’s not the autumn then it’s in the spring.”
