Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn are braced for further walkouts today as the new Independent Group continues to rip up the parliamentary landscape.
After Europhiles Anna Soubry, Sarah Wollaston and Heidi Allen joined eight former Labour MPs in the new grouping on Wednesday, Downing Street is on red alert for further Conservative departures.
The Independent Group said it expects more MPs on both sides to join, with rumours of as many as six more Labour MPs who could follow suit today.
Dr Wollaston told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Thursday: “I know that there are many colleagues on my side who will be watching carefully and expecting Theresa May to be certain that she is not going to take us out on a no-deal Brexit.”
But Justine Greening, a pro-EU Tory who has regularly rebelled against Mrs May on Brexit, said she was staying in the party "for the moment".
She told the same programme: "It is something that I have considered [joining the Independent Group], but I have reached a different conclusion for the moment."
But Ms Greening indicated she would leave if a no deal Brexit happened: “I don't think I would be able to stay part of a party that was simply a Brexit party that had crashed us out of the European Union.”
Meanwhile, chancellor Philip Hammond told LBC he still hoped the defectors would one day return.
“The Conservative Party is and always has been a broad church,” he said. “I hope in the fullness of time they will come back into the fold.
“I reject some of the things said by those three about handling of the economy. I also reject the accusation the party has lurched to the right on domestic policy.
“The Conservative Party traditionally has been in favour of the EU while being pretty sceptical of its development. But we respect the referendum, and our job is delivering a sensible, pragmatic Brexit.”
Asked on the so-called “Blukip” wing of the party and influence of Jacob Rees-Mogg’s pro-Brexit European Research Group (ERG), Mr Hammond said: “If you were a member of the ERG it wouldn’t feel like [the party is in its grip].
“We have seen a very clear sense of the compromise emerging. In a broard church you have to make compromises.
On by-elections for the three Tory defectors, as Jeremy Corbyn has demanded for the eight MPs who quit Labour, Mr Hammond added: “No, that’s not the right approach to take.
“I hope the values we share in common will eventually come to the fore when we put the Brexit process behind us. I don’t think Jeremy Corbyn’s approach of threats and aggressive noises is a sensible thing to do.”
