Brexiteers who have spent two years crying ‘you lost, get over it!’ at Remainers have ignored their own mantra and called for Theresa May to go – despite them losing the vote of no confidence they called.
Arch-Brexiteer and European Research Group leader Jacob Rees-Mogg led calls for Theresa May to step down after the vote, pointing out that she had lost the confidence of more than a third of her MPs and a majority of her backbenchers.
The hardline European Research Group (ERG) vowed to continue opposing May’s ‘disastrous’ Brexit deal, with a spokesman warning: ‘The parliamentary arithmetic remains unchanged.’
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Immediately after the vote he told the BBC: ‘Of course I accept this result, but the Prime Minister must realise that under all constitutional norms, she ought to go to see the Queen urgently and resign.’
He also told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme it is ‘not impossible’ that May might change her mind and resign.
‘You may remember that Margaret Thatcher… said ‘We fight on, we fight to win’. Nobody was tougher than Mrs Thatcher, and the next day she resigned. So it’s not impossible.
‘I think Theresa May should consider what she said last night. I agree with her that we do want somebody who can unite the country and the Conservative Party and she has to ask herself is she realistically that person?’
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Conservative MP Richard Drax also backed calls for May to resign.
Drax told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: ‘We want a Brexiteer… I would suggest, were the prime minister thinking carefully this morning, she would offer her resignation and allow someone who can deliver this to take over.’
Veteran Eurosceptic Peter Bone also told ITV that May should step down.
He said: ‘It seems to me we need to have a leader who can unite the party and unite the country and deliver a proper Brexit.’
Others have turned on their party colleagues, calling for the complaining to stop.
Foreign minister Alistair Burt tweeted: ‘They never, ever stop. Votes against them, letters going in late – nothing matters to ERG. After the apocalypse, all that will be left will be ants and Tory MPs complaining about Europe and their leader.’
Braintree MP James Cleverly tweeted: ‘Some colleagues, perhaps out of frustration, saying foolish things about other Conservatives. Now would be a good time to stop.’
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