Jacob Rees-Mogg accuses the House of Lord of 'playing with fire' for opposing the Government on Brexit
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Unelected Lords have set up a “peers against the people” battle over Brexit, a leading Tory Leaver has claimed.
Jacob Rees-Mogg accused the Upper Chamber of “playing with fire” for opposing Theresa May’s EU withdrawal plan.
“It would be a shame to burn down a historic House,” said the right-winger.
“They may have to decide whether they love ermine or the EU more.”
Mr Rees-Mogg also claimed the Prime Minister, who backed Remain in the June 2016 referendum, was “enigmatic” over quitting the bloc.
(Image: PA)
And in a warning not to give EU citizens preferential access to Britain under a future deal with Brussels, he said it would be “racist” to prioritise mainly “white” migrants from the union over those from the Caribbean.
In a thinly-veiled rebuke to the PM’s negotiating strategy, he blasted the “dreadful” transition deal which will last until the end of 2020 and urged Mrs May to make more of the £39billion divorce payment she has pledged.
“The EU risks being insolvent if we leave without a deal and don’t pay them the contributions that would be made in that 21-month period,” he said.
“That’s a very strong hand to have.”
He also called on the PM to threaten Ireland’s cattle farmers with 70% tariffs if we quit without a deal.
“If we were to apply the common external tariff onto Irish beef, the Irish agricultural industry is in serious trouble,” he told the Open Europe think tank.
“You have to ask the EU, ‘Does it want to sacrifice the economy of Ireland on the altar of EU ideology?’ My guess is that the answer is no.”
(Image: Getty Images Europe)
He warned the PM, who hosts a meeting of her Brexit War Cabinet on Wednesday, that giving EU nationals priority in coming to the UK after withdrawal would be “completely wrong”.
“Once we are outside the European Union we are then basically, if we give them preference, running a racist immigration policy,” he said.
“The people of Europe are by and large white and we should think about extraordinarily carefully.
“If we are to decide that we should have a policy that discriminates against the Caribbean, because they are not in the EU, to take people from inside the EU which we have left - I think that’s an extremely dubious policy to run.”
Asked about Mrs May’s commitment to Brexit, Mr Rees-Mogg said: “The Prime Minister is a very enigmatic figure in this respect.
(Image: PA)
“She is carrying out the will of the British people but it’s hard to read what level of enthusiasm she has for it.
“She is doing it, she has never indicated anything other than that, she has said ‘Brexit means Brexit’.
“But she doesn’t by her nature express herself unduly emotionally and I think that’s rather a good thing.”
Earlier, No 10 dismissed fresh calls from EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier for greater clarity over what the Uk wants from a pact.
In a thinly-veiled slap down, Mrs May’s spokesman said: “Whenever we start a new round of negotiations, there is inevitably some public commentary.
“What we are focused on delivering is the PM’s vision in the negotiating room.”
However, Whitehall’s spending watchdog, Auditor General Sir Amyas Morse, told MPs yesterday(TUES) that if Parliament backs the withdrawal agreement in a vote in the autumn, it will become a legally binding treaty regardless of the success of separate trade talks - meaning the UK would have to cough up regardless.