SENIOR Tories have quit a pro-EU campaign after it drew up a hit list of mainly Conservative MPs it wants to oust at the General Election.
Open Britain is targeting key Leave supporters in 20 constituencies while throwing its backing behind 20 MPs, who have spoken out against a hard exit from the EU since the referendum.
But the cross-party group, which grew out of the Remain campaign, has lost high-profile Tory backers Anna Soubry, the former Business Minister, Dominic Grieve, the former Attorney General, and Nicky Morgan, the former Education Secretary, after 18 of the seats where activists will be sent to campaign against the sitting MP were Tory.
Just one of the constituencies where they would rally to support the incumbent is held by a Conservative.
In a statement on behalf of the three, Ms Morgan said: "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. I and we will not be doing so."
Ms Soubry added: "This sort of blatant partisanship further divides our country when we must all come together."
Open Britain, along with European Movement and Britain for Europe, will draw on its database of 600,000 supporters to target the crucial seats in its bid to stop a hard Brexit.
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.”
He explained there was no way of getting involved in an election 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," added the spokesman.
But Richard Tice, co-Chairman of Brexit campaigners Leave Means Leave, said: "Open Britain have been in denial about the reality that Britain is leaving the EU. They need to wake up and embrace the democratic decision for Brexit.
"They have continually demonstrated how out of touch they really are. Resigning from Open Britain is the right thing to do," he added.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel