The Conservatives are already the party of ‘hard Brexit’

Source: Politico Europe and, The Independent

Last week, Anna Soubry — one of Parliament’s most pro-EU MPs — threatened to quit The Conservative Party if they pursued a ‘hard Brexit’ — warning that such an outcome could split the party. But, the truth is that The Tories are already the party of ‘hard Brexit’. In the current Conservative Party, right wing Brexiteers have the momentum, while the views of moderate MPs are sidelined.

There have always been eurosceptics in the Tory Party — the debate within the party about our place in The EU is nothing new — but, until now, supporters of The EU, have always had a strong voice in the party. But, the party's current leader intends to rip us out the single market, believes “no deal is better than a bad deal” and has promoted key Brexit architects to high profile cabinet positions.

And, despite a poor election result — which many interpreted as a vote against the party’s Brexit plans — the Tories show no intention of changing their EU stance. In fact, they could end up moving even further to the right on the issue. The favourites to overtake Theresa May as leader — David Davis and Boris Johnson — are both avid Brexiteers, and the leadership ambitions of most Conservative remainers are dead in the water. Home Secretary, Amber Rudd’s 346 vote majority, makes her seat number 7 on labours target list, meanwhile Chancellor Philip Hammond has a dismal -25.4 satisfaction rating among party members, and, Ruth Davidson remains fully committed to becoming First Minister of Scotland, showing no intentions of becoming an MP anytime soon.

But, as Anna Soubry said herself, country must come before party, and few issues will affect the country as deeply as Brexit. Whatever the most important issue is to you, it will inevitably be affected by Brexit, for Brexit threatens rising food prices, fewer trade deals, and a weakened economy. And, while Soubry is right that, “the wise owls should be ruling the roost.” the likelihood is that The Conservatives will continue to give them little influence over our exit from the EU.