The former Conservative prime minister Sir John Major has thrown his weight behind rebel ex-Conservatives, including Dominic Grieve, who are standing as independents in next week’s general election.
Speaking at a rally on Friday evening, Major will say that given the opportunity he would cast his vote for Grieve, the former attorney-general who was a thorn in the side of Theresa May’s government.
A leading rebel on Brexit legislation, Grieve was a leading figure in the cross-party group that helped force the Conservatives to offer MPs a meaningful vote on the withdrawal act.
He was stripped of the Conservative whip by Boris Johnson, making him ineligible to stand again as a Tory candidate – but he is standing in Beaconsfield as an independent against his former party.
Major also said he would support two other former Conservative ministers who are running as independents – the former justice secretary David Gauke, and the business minister Anne Milton.
Major is expected to say: “Let me make one thing absolutely clear: none of them has left the Conservative party, the Conservative party has left them.
“Without such talent on its benches, parliament will be the poorer, which is why – if I were resident in any one of their constituencies – they would have my vote.”
Major’s intervention underlines the radical transformation Brexit has unleashed in the Conservative party: and in particular since Johnson took over as prime minister in July.
A string of well-known Tory moderates, including Amber Rudd, Nicky Morgan and Philip Hammond, opted not to stand for parliament again; while Johnson has boasted that every Conservative candidate has signed up to his Brexit deal.
Gauke, who was justice secretary in May’s government, is running in south-west Hertfordshire. He has spoken out repeatedly about what Johnson’s approach to Brexit, and what he has called the prime minister’s “Farage-lite” strategy. Milton is standing in her old seat of Guildford.
Major will describe Brexit as the “worst foreign policy decision in my lifetime”, and say that leaving the EU will affect “nearly every single aspect of our lives for many decades to come”.
“It will make our country poorer and weaker. It will hurt most those who have least. Never have the stakes been higher, especially for the young. Brexit may even break up our historic United Kingdom,” he will say.
Major will urge voters: “Don’t wake up on Friday 13 December and regret not making a choice.” He will be joined at the rally in central London by the former Labour prime minister Tony Blair.
The event has been organised by two anti-Brexit campaign groups, Vote For a Final Say and For Our Future’s Sake.
Blair will warn voters not to give the Tories a majority on 12 December. He is expected to say: “This Conservative party, which now expels the likes of Michael Heseltine, disowns the statesmanship of John Major, a party whose chancellor as of July this year is now exiled in the wilderness for the temerity to say what he knows to be true, namely that a no-deal Brexit is a risk no responsible government would take; such a Conservative party does not deserve to govern unchecked and the country would not be wise to let them.”
Vote for a Final Say is the campaign that has emerged from the acrimonious split in the People’s Vote organisation. It is offering financial support to anti-Brexit candidates in the run-up to next week’s poll.
