Tory Brexiter hints he will vote against government in no confidence motion

A former Brexit minister has hinted he could resign from the Tories and back a no-confidence motion in the government.

Steve Baker, one of the die-hard band of Brexiters who voted against Theresa May’s withdrawal plan on Friday, has warned the possibility of a general election was now “coming on to the table.”

Baker, who is deputy chairman of the European Research Group of Conservative MPs last week decried those in his party who support the deal as “fools and knaves and cowards” who have an “addiction to power.”

He even suggested he may “resign the whip”.

Appearing on BBC’s Politics Live on Monday lunchtime, Baker was scathing about the possibility of the UK staying in a customs union with the EU after Brexit.

Asked if he would back a motion of no confidence tabled by Labour, he replied: “At this point I can see no circumstances while as a Conservative MP, I voted against the Government in a confidence motion.

“But we are approaching a point where the stakes are so very high and so transcend party politics and what this country is about and the fundamental British value that political power rests on consent that I think these things are coming on to the table.”

Labour tabled a vote of no confidence in January when May’s suffered the worst parliamentary defeat for a government in UK history when her Brexit deal was first rejected by the Commons.

The government won the vote by a margin of 19 – but had the 10 DUP MPs voted against May would have lost.

If the government did lose a confidence vote, the wheels would be set in motion for a general election.