Two senior Tories ready to resign if May fails to change Brexit direction

Justine Greening and Dominic Grieve say they would not be able to support government under no deal

Frances Perraudin
Thu 21 Feb 2019 09.56 GMT First published on Thu 21 Feb 2019 08.36 GMT

Two senior Conservatives have said they are ready to resign from the party if it does not change its direction on Brexit, after three of their colleagues joined eight former Labour MPs in a breakaway group in parliament.

The former attorney general Dominic Grieve and the former education secretary Justine Greening both said they would leave the Conservatives if there was a no-deal Brexit, as the three ex-Tory MPs said a third of the party could be willing to join them.

Greening said she would stay in the party “for the moment”. Asked if she would join the Independent Group, she said: “It is something that I’ve considered, but I’ve reached a different conclusion for the moment. I want to challenge my own party. I think we can step up to the plate. I know that many activists and members of parliament feel exactly as I do on social mobility.”

She said she would work to prevent a hard Brexit by voting against it in parliament. Greening added: “If I’m not successful then to my mind the party that I joined many years ago and that I felt matched my aspirations and the aspirations of many people in Britain on opportunity, I would question if that is the Conservative party today,.”

-snip-