No way' enough ERG Tories will switch for May's deal to pass, says ERG source - Guardian

The Guardian is reporting that an ERG source has sent out some lines from the speech that Steve Baker, the ERG deputy chairman, gave at the ERG meeting this evening.

"It turns out he really did talk about bulldozing parliament - Baker said:

I’m consumed with a ferocious rage after that pantomime [May in the ‘22] ...

What is our liberty for if not to govern ourselves?

Like all of you I have wrestled with my conscience about what to do.

I could tear this place down and bulldoze it into the river. 

These fools and knaves and cowards are voting on things they don’t even understand. 

We’ve been put in this place by people whose addiction to power without responsibility has led them to put the choice of no Brexit or this deal. 

I may yet resign the whip rather than be part of this.

The source said that Baker received an enormous standing ovation at the end of the speech and that he was hugged by Jacob Rees-Mogg and others afterwards. “We are not a hugging group,” the source said.

He also said he thought there was “no way” that enough ERG members were going to switch for Theresa May’s deal to pass."