Leading Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg has backed Boris Johnson to be the next Tory leader.
The European Research Group chairman praised the former Foreign Secretary who is popular with Tory members.
He said: “I think very highly of Boris Johnson, who managed to win in London twice in a Labour area – has a great connection with voters.
“He is a clear Eurosceptic but otherwise is very much in the middle of the Conservative Party.
“He is not particularly a factional character beyond the European issue and therefore I think could unite the party and win an election.”
Mr Johnson’s leadership prospects have been boosted by speculation about an alliance with Remain-leaning Cabinet minister Amber Rudd.
The rumoured collaboration has been dubbed “Bamber” by Westminster insiders.
(Image: Daily Mirror)
While the Work and Pensions Secretary could bring a band of around 50 Remain-backing Tories, Mr Johnson would win over the grassroots.
Mr Rees-Mogg said he also “thought highly of Amber Rudd” who was a person of “first-class capabilities”.
“There will come a time, though we may find this difficult to believe at the moment, when there are other things to talk about than Europe, and at that point we will need all the talents that are arrayed within the Tory party, not just those of Brexiteers.”
In an interview with Sky News Mr Rees-Mogg criticised the Prime Minister’s talks with Jeremy Corbyn , saying there was an “irony, at the very minimum, of saying one week that one thinks Mr Corbyn is dangerous and unfit for office and the next week deciding to cohabit with him”.
“Not both of those statements can be true and I think the Prime Minister risks giving a degree of credibility to Mr Corbyn and undermining the general thrust of the Conservative argument that he is a Marxist who would be dangerous to this nation’s interests,” he told Sky’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday.
Last week Mr Rees-Mogg was slapped down by Brussels who dismissed him as an irrelevance after he said the UK should be “the most difficult member possible” in the EU if it was “forced to remain in”.
“This gentleman is not our interlocutor and I would say then that the principle of sincere cooperation does apply, as prime minister May herself makes clear in her letter,” a spokesman for the European Commission said.
But today he repeated his calls for the UK to cause chaos.
“I don’t think the EU, in its jargon, has behaved towards us with sincere co-operation,” he told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge On Sunday.
“I don’t think sincere co-operation could possibly include trying to break up the unity of a member state when it leaves the EU, and therefore I think we are no longer obliged to follow sincere co-operation in return.
“When the multi-annual financial framework comes forward, if we are still in, this is our one-in-seven year opportunity to veto the budget and to be really very difficult, and I hope that any British prime minister would take that opportunity.”
