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From Rebellion to Extinction: Where have all the Tory Remainer MPs Gone?
Author(s) -
AlexandreCollier Agnès
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
the political quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.373
H-Index - 37
eISSN - 1467-923X
pISSN - 0032-3179
DOI - 10.1111/1467-923x.12824
Subject(s) - merge (version control) , general election , brexit , political science , opposition (politics) , political economy , law , sociology , economics , politics , computer science , international trade , european union , information retrieval
This article examines the process of extinction of former remainer Conservative MPs who followed different paths in the run‐up to the 2019 general election: either choosing to stay loyal and merge with the rest of the parliamentary party, or to express their discontent and leave the party. When they chose to rebel against the leadership, only a small minority dared to vindicate their position. The other rebels constantly played down their identity as remainers and justified their views in an apologetic way. More remarkably, they were treated differently by Boris Johnson, who eventually suspended the last remainers and called for a general election to renew the composition of the party. The consequences of this last move are crucial in order to understand the radical transformation of the Conservative Party into the actual (and only) ‘party of Brexit’.