Southport MP Damien Moore is not joining the ranks of Conservative ‘vultures’ circling around the injured body of Theresa May as she tries desperately to weave a way through Brexit.
Deputy Prime Minister David Liddington has appealed on BBC TV for more Tory MPs ‘left right and centre’ to come together and keep their heads down like Mr Moore has done.
Mr Liddington is asking Conservative MPs to all look at the ‘broader picture’ in an attitude of ‘mutual respect’ as increasing numbers of Tory MPs have written to the Party Chairman calling for a new Leadership election to replace Mrs May.
Both Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Defence Secretary Gavin Wilkinson are seen to be ‘on manoeuvres’ preparing for a Conservative leadership election while Chancellor Phillip Hammond has joined Johnson in promoting independent lines on Brexit without the Prime Minister’s backing, thus undermining her dwindling authority.
Mr Moore, like Mrs May and Jeremy Corbyn, did not campaign actively in the Brexit referendum but is happy for it to go through.
He is one of a small handful of MPs in England who benefited directly from Mrs May calling the 2017 General Election.
Having been roundly beaten by former Southport MP John Pugh in 2015, Mr Moore was successful in 2017 when less-experienced opponents could not counter the thousands of UKIP votes which transferred to him from Terry Durrance after the EU Referendum.