What Tory members think about Theresa May’s Brexit deal

On 14 January Theresa May will resume the uphill task of getting her Brexit agreement with the European Union through the House of Commons. So far, things are not looking good for the PM. Before the Christmas break, over one hundred Tory MPs publicly pledged to vote against her deal, and the ferocious backlash it received from all quarters forced the government to delay the vote in order to avoid an inevitable, and humiliating defeat.

One of the hopes in Downing Street was that the Christmas break would give everyone a chance to cool down. MPs returning to their constituencies for the festive period would speak to members of the public who would convince them to get on with Brexit and get behind May’s plan. However, for that to happen, May had best hope these MPs weren’t only speaking to Tory members. New polling of Conservative members conducted by the ESRC-funded Party Members Project, released today, revealed that the grassroots are overwhelmingly opposed to her agreement with the EU, with 59 per cent of the the 1215 members surveyed against the draft outright, and 53 per cent saying it does not respect the result of the referendum.