Theresa May has damaged the Tories by failing to unite MPs, former cabinet minister says

Nicky Morgan says opportunities to heal rift over Brexit 'haven't been taken or weren't taken early enough'

Benjamin Kentish
Thursday 30 November 2017 21:20 GMT
Comments
Nicky Morgan said ongoing divisions in the Conservative Party were a cause of 'great sadness'
Nicky Morgan said ongoing divisions in the Conservative Party were a cause of 'great sadness'

Theresa May has damaged the Conservative Party through her pursuit of a hard Brexit and her failure to unite her MPs, a former Conservative cabinet minister has said.

Nicky Morgan, who served as Education Secretary under David Cameron, suggested Ms May has failed to heal the divide between Remainers and Brexiteers and claimed this cost the Tories votes in June’s general election.

Ms Morgan, who has been one of the most outspoken Conservative critics of the Government’s Brexit stance, said she felt “great sadness” at the rift in her party on the issue of Britain’s withdrawal from the EU.

The Loughborough MP, who called on Ms May to quit after she squandered the Tories’ parliamentary majority, said the Brexit process had placed “extraordinary strain” on Britain’s constitution and parliamentary democracy and “sucked the oxygen” out of Whitehall because other policy issues are being side-lined.

Asked about Ms May’s approach to Brexit when she first entered Downing Street, Ms Morgan told The House magazine: “I think it did damage the Conservative Party, and we saw that in the election result, particularly in London.

“I also think it damaged relations within the Conservative Party.”

“Those divisions still remain, and that has to be a great sadness almost 18 months on from June 2016.”

She added: “One of the great sadnesses for me and for others about this whole process has been how divided and how vitriolic some of the things have become, both inside the Conservative Party but also outside, and actually how the opportunities to heal some of those divisions haven’t been taken or weren’t taken early enough.”

The former Education Secretary and other Tory Remainers have been criticised by Eurosceptics in the party, but Ms Morgan said she considered herself a “freedom fighter” in attempting to ensure that Parliament is given a strong voice on Brexit.

“I do sometimes feel like I’m in the middle of the 17th Century, when you are standing up for the rights of Parliament,” she said.

“Anybody who is a backbench Member of Parliament should be doing that at the moment. Democracy is a precious thing and the rights of Parliament are a precious thing.

“It would be too easy just to cede them and then 10, 20, 30 years down the line, to really regret and think, ‘why didn’t we fight a bit harder?’, when the next big crisis comes along.”

She also revealed that she has framed a Daily Telegraph front page that accused her and other pro-EU Conservative MPs of being “Brexit mutineers”.

Ms Morgan campaigned vocally for Remain in the run-up to last year’s referendum and since then has strongly opposed the Government’s plans to withdraw the UK from the single market and customs union – despite the fact that her constituency is thought to have voted Leave.

The former minister said she had explained to constituents that, while she respected the outcome of the vote, her duty as an MP was to serve as their representative rather than a delegate bound by their views,

Brexit has “put our representative democracy under strain like nothing I’ve ever seen before”, she said.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in