TWO serving Cabinet ministers have discussed the formation of a new centrist party aimed at blocking Brexit, a former aide to George Osborne and David Davis has claimed.
James Chapman said the pair contacted him after he floated the idea of a party, provisionally called the Democrats, to avoid the “catastrophe” of Brexit.
Mr Chapman, who was chief of staff to the Brexit Secretary after the EU referendum, also said the Tories would never win another majority because Brexit had trashed the party brand.
After a week of combative tweets aimed at Cabinet members, Mr Chapman told Radio 4’s Today programme: “Two people in the cabinet, a number of people who have been in Conservative cabinets before now – better cabinets, I might say, than the current one – and a number of shadow cabinets ministers have also been in touch.
“They are not saying they are going to quit their parties, but they are saying they understand that there is an enormous gap in the centre now of British politics.”
Mr Chapman also said Labour and the Conservatives had been taken over by extreme factions
Appearing alongside Tory Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg, he said: “The two main parties have been captured by their fringes, and Jacob is a member of that fringe and he has captured my party and I don’t any longer want to be a part of it.
“My view is that the Conservative Party brand has now been damaged to such an extent that the party won't be elected again and ever again get a majority.
"There are times in our national life when you have to put your nation before your country and what the hard Brexit plan Mrs (Theresa) May is pursuing in going to take the economy off a cliff, it's going to make Black Wednesday look like a picnic and when that happens the Conservative Party will never be in power again."
He denied he was in cahoots with his old boss, Mr Osborne.
The former Chancellor has used his position as editor of the Evening Standard to rail against Mrs May and Brexit .
Mr Rees-Mogg said he would be “very surprised” if Mr Chapman was correct.
He said: “I think most people in the high levels of the party and across the Conservative Party and the nation have accepted the democratic result of the referendum a year ago."
“What’s so peculiar about this new party is that it wants to call itself the Democrats and the first thing it wishes to do is to overturn a democratic decision.
“Their proposed name ought to be the Oligarchs rather than the Democrats.
“The Lib Dems campaigned on a proposal [in effect] to reverse the referendum and the electorate blew a raspberry at them.”
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