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Courtesy of the Sunday Times, the knives are being sharpened.
Theresa May was facing a fresh threat to her leadership last night as senior Tories said the man who ran her election campaign is secretly masterminding a bid to destroy her Brexit plan and install Boris Johnson in Downing Street. Sir Lynton Crosby — the election guru who helped Johnson win two London mayoral elections — has ordered his allies to work with hardline Brexiteers in the Commons to run a nationwide campaign against the prime minister’s Chequers plan. One of Crosby’s senior staff at his firm CTF Partners is in close contact with the European Research Group (ERG) of Brexit hardliners run by Jacob Rees-Mogg and a campaign that is seen as a front for Johnson’s leadership ambitions. MPs plan to publish an alternative to May’s plan before the Tory party conference with the backing of both Johnson and David Davis, who resigned from the cabinet over Chequers.
The revelations come as The Sunday Times can reveal that May’s aides have had talks with civil servants about whether to call a general election if her Brexit deal is voted down by MPs. They have also discussed whether she should announce that she will stand down in the year after Brexit.
The revelation that the Tories’ top election strategist is trying to destroy May’s flagship policy will ignite a firestorm in Westminster. Crosby is understood to think that May’s plan — which will keep Britain in permanent close alignment with Brussels — would betray the voters who backed Brexit and hurt the Conservative Party at the next election. The Australian, known as the Wizard of Oz, is also said to be angry that May’s aides sought to blame him for the disastrous 2017 election campaign.
One of Crosby’s staff, David Canzini, is revitalising Change Britain, a pro-Brexit group, to campaign against the Chequers deal and give Johnson a personal platform. He is working closely with former Brexit minister Steve Baker and Stewart Jackson, formerly Davis’s aide. In recent days Canzini’s Twitter feed has featured messages attacking the Chequers deal and retweeting Brexiteers such as Baker, Jackson, Nigel Farage, Owen Paterson, John Redwood and Priti Patel. A senior Tory said: “Lynton’s firm is working with the ERG to run this campaign to bring down Chequers. It looks like Lynton is hitting back after falling out over the election campaign and is trying to boot out the prime minister. They want to get Boris in.” One of those involved admitted that destroying Chequers would lead to May’s resignation: “If we stop Chequers, there is no way she’ll survive.” Crosby is abroad, but officials at party HQ say he has been contacting Tory donors urging them to fund the campaign.
Davis has privately welcomed the involvement of Crosby’s firm, for bringing professionalism and organisation to sometimes disparate Eurosceptic groups — but he does not back Johnson as leader.
Tory MPs keeping count say that 33 letters calling for May’s head were submitted to party bosses before the summer recess — 15 short of the number needed to trigger a vote of no confidence.
In a further assault on May’s authority Nick Boles, a close ally of the environment secretary, Michael Gove, will this week call on May to ditch the Chequers plan and take Britain into a Norway-style relationship with the EU. This weekend May seeks to shore up support from Brexiteers by ruling out holding a second referendum on Brexit, saying it would be a “gross betrayal” of those who voted for Brexit. She said she would not “give in to those who want to reopen the whole question with a second referendum.
“In the summer of 2016, millions came out to have their say. They trusted that their vote would count; that after years of feeling ignored by politics, their voices would be heard. To ask the question all over again would be a gross betrayal of our democracy — and a betrayal of that trust.” A spokesman for CTF Partners confirmed the company’s involvement and defended the campaign on the grounds that even May’s former aide Nick Timothy has said she should ditch her Chequers plan. “CTF’s senior staff are often consulted because of their campaign expertise and knowledge. That’s not unusual,” the spokesman said.
“The better the deal the prime minister secures for the UK in Brexit negotiations, the better the prospects for the Conservative Party at the next general election. As far as Sir Lynton is concerned, he has been overseas for the last five weeks.” A source close to Johnson said: “While Boris has always backed the aims of Change Britain, he has no role in the organisation.”