General election 2017: Senior Tories quit Open Britain campaign over Brexit hit list of 20 MPs to oust

Quitting: Nicky Morgan announced her withdrawal from the group on Facebook
Jeremy Selwyn
Tom Powell25 April 2017
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Three senior Tory backbenchers have quit the Open Britain campaign in protest after it released a Brexit hit list of MPs to oust in the general election.

Nicky Morgan, Anna Soubry and Dominic Grieve announced they were cutting ties with the pro-Europe group over its list of 20 constituencies to target – almost all currently Conservative.

The group has teamed up with two other grassroots campaigns in a plot to reduce the number of MPs supporting a hard Brexit by flooding those key constituencies with activists ahead of the election.

Iain Duncan Smith and Theresa Villiers are among the 18 Tory MPs being targeted, with Labour’s Kate Hoey, MP for Vauxhall, also on the list.

Ms Morgan, Ms Soubry and Mr Grieve were leading supporters of the group but today released a statement announcing their withdrawal.

"As long standing Conservative Party members and MPs it is untenable for us to play any further role in an organisation, such as Open Britain, which is advocating campaigning against Conservative MPs or candidates. l and we will not be doing so," read the statement on Ms Morgan’s Facebook page.

Tory MP Anna Soubry is also quitting the group
AFP/Getty Images

The groups’ campaign will also draw on its database of 600,000 supporters to support 20 MPs including Labour's Mary Creagh, Conservative Neil Carmichael and Green MP Caroline Lucas.

A spokesman for Open Britain said: “It is understandable that during an election campaign, political differences between members of different parties become magnified.

“Open Britain represents activists from all political persuasions who want to campaign against a hard Brexit and for a continued close relationship with Europe.

“As a grassroots organisation, we’ve had thousands of emails from our supporters asking how and where they should campaign during the General Election and we are trying to direct them to where they can make the biggest difference in the fight against hard Brexit.

“The Government have made this into a Brexit election, so it would be surprising if Open Britain’s volunteers did want to get involved.

“There is no way of getting involved in an election like this, without campaigning for or against members of one party or another, so it was always going to disappoint some within a cross-party organisation.

“Our key seats list will continue to include support for those willing to campaign against hard Brexit from across the political spectrum.

“It has been a pleasure to work with some fantastic Conservative MPs in recent months and our door will always be open after the election to any that want to work with us in the future.”

“Election candidates of all parties should be demanding that a hard Brexit is rejected and making clear that they will reserve judgement on the outcome until they see whether we get exactly the same trade benefits, as David Davis has promised.”

It comes as Labour sets out its Brexit strategy and the Tories continue to warn that Jeremy Corbyn's party is seeking to "disrupt" the negotiations.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

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