Iain Dale: Tories Are Fighting Over Brexit Like Ferrets In A Sack

26 January 2018, 16:52

Iain Dale laid into the Conservative cabinet over their constant Brexit in-fighting.

Boris Johnson broke ranks earlier this week to throw his weight behind extra funding for the NHS and then yesterday, Chancellor Philip Hammond angered Brexiteers by suggesting the change when we leave the EU would be "modest".

Meanwhile, Conservative Central HQ sent out this tweet:

Iain Dale didn't hold back as he said: "There's something a little bit wrong with that tweet, isn't there? I wonder what it might be!

"At the moment, it seems to me that the Conservative Party are like ferrets in a sack. They are almost at the point of civil war.

"We've seen it before over Europe. We saw it with the Maastrict Treaty, we saw it in the early part of this century under Iain Duncan Smith's leadership. And now we're seeing it again.

"It is at least in part caused Cabinet ministers who don't seem to understand the concept of collective responsibility. That means that they have to follow the government line.

"We've talked about Boris Johnson's approach to this over the last few days. Now it's Philip Hammond the Chancellor's turn, who appears to have stepped out of line.

"He said he doesn't think there should be much divergence at all between us and the European Union after Brexit. He's hinted that he still believes that freedom of movement of people ought to be a policy pursued by the government.

"Well it isn't government policy, that's the problem."