Hardline Tory MPs are poised to back a new Brexit deal after Boris Johnson made clear that he won’t break their ‘Spartan’ code of never surrendering to Brussels.
A string of prominent backbench members of the European Research Group (ERG) have offered their tentative support for a compromise plan drafted by Downing Street as a way of delivering exit from the EU by October 31.
The PM has told colleagues that whatever happens in the next few weeks he will obey the never-surrender ‘law’ of the self-styled ‘Spartan’ MPs, who named themselves after the Greek soldiers who died in a famous battle when outnumbered by Persian enemies.
Johnson has taken to quoting - in ancient Greek and in English - the epitaph to the fallen at Thermopylae, which reads: “Go, tell the Spartans, stranger passing by/That here, obedient to their laws, we lie.”
The couplet by poet Simonides, underlined that under Spartan ‘law’, their soldiers vowed never to retreat from a battle.
The prime minister has in the past hinted that he may withdraw the whip from any hardline Brexiteers who vote down his fresh proposals, claiming that he is braced for Spartan ‘spears in my back’ in coming weeks.
But in recent days, the prime minister has been keen to give fresh reassurances to the 27 hardcore Tory MPs who voted three times to kill Theresa May’s UK-EU withdrawal agreement.
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His ‘no surrender’ message may be seen by critics as an attempt to sweeten any concessions, and give cover to the MPs whose votes he needs to pass any deal through the Commons.
The phrase also play into the traditional message of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) whose 10 votes are crucial if the parliamentary deadlock is to be broken.
Johnson has spent the past week attacking the Benn Act, which forces him to delay Brexit in the event of no agreement, as the ‘Surrender Bill’.
There were signs at the Tory party conference in Manchester that the PM’s close contacts with both the DUP and the ERG are paying off.
Leading Brexiteer Steve Baker told BBC Radio 4 that if Johnson brought back a Brexit deal he was “highly confident” MPs would vote for it.
Baker added that unlike under Theresa May, his ERG group was able to feed into the policy process. “If I text the prime minister, I’m in the privileged position he will text back,” he said. “I’ve spoken to him a couple of times, we’ve seen important people in the government quite regularly.”
“If I’m voting hand on heart for this proposal, it has to be Brexit. If it’s Brexit in name only, I will vote against it.”
On Monday, fellow Brexiteer Mark Francois was also keen to say he was not ruling out compromises. “If there is some form of deal, be it over the backstop or anything else, then I and my colleagues will look at it and read it very carefully,” he said.
Francois told PoliticsHome: “I’ve been asked loads of time in media interviews ‘will you vote for it?’. The only honest answer I can give is it depends what it says.”
And Tory backbencher Andrew Rosindell said: “Boris will be in a much better position than Theresa was six months ago. It’s much more likely that we would vote for it, if it’s an improved deal.”
DUP leader Arlene Foster has also hinted at the Tory conference that she was open to the idea of time-limiting the controversial Northern Ireland ‘backstop’ that guarantees no return to a hard border with Ireland.