Downing Street has urged Tories to get behind Theresa May’s Brexit plan after a series of very public blue-on-blue attacks.
Crawley MP Henry Smith took to Twitter to reject an invitation to watch England’s World Cup semi-final in Downing Street – claiming the PM “isn’t bringing Brexit home”.
That prompted Tory Chief Whip Julian Smith – who is responsible for party discipline – to issue a public slap-down.
Another Tory seemingly happy to attack his colleagues in public is Simon Hart – who told an MP who quit as a ministerial aide that “nobody gives a fuck”.
The Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire MP described the now-former Brexit Secretary David Davis of as one of the “architects of this shit show”.
The breakdown in party discipline comes after Davis and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson quit the Cabinet in protest at May’s Brexit policy.
Blogging for HuffPost UK, Hart said the pair’s actions had left the Brexit project hanging by “the finest of threads”.
Speaking on Wednesday afternoon, a Downing Street spokesman said: “The Prime Minister urges all of the Conservative Party to get behind the plan as the Cabinet has agreed at Chequers, and we will be publishing the white paper tomorrow to give further details of that.
He added: “We urge everyone to get behind that plan.”