Shelagh Fogarty Battles Damian Green MP Over Tory Splitters
20 February 2019, 15:00
Shelagh Fogarty did battle with Theresa May's former deputy over the state of the Tories after three MPs resigned from the party.
Damian Green defended his party’s legacy after the splitting trio said “all the efforts to modernise” the Conservatives had been undone.
Anna Soubry, Sarah Wollaston and Heidi Allen quit on Wednesday to join the Independent Group made up of eight former Labour MPs.
In a press conference, MS Allen said Theresa May had been "bullied into submission" by Tory Eurosceptics and was "dragging the country and Parliament kicking and screaming to the edge of a no deal abyss”.
Ms Soubry added that the “right wing, the hard-line anti-EU awkward squad” were now running the party.
Mr Green, however, disagreed with their decisions to quit.
He said: “To say does this country have problems? Yes it does, therefore you should leave the governing party, I just disagree with my three former colleagues on that.
Shelagh replied: “That’s not the reason they’re leaving the governing party… they’re leaving it because they no longer recognise it as the Conservative Party that they joined.”
Mr Green hit back: “Well they’re leaving it over Brexit. They take a different view.
“They want a second referendum, they don’t want Brexit at all, they want to reverse the result of the first referendum.
“They are free to hold that view, I disagree with them having campaigned for Remain myself.”
