Theresa May risks riots in the streets unless she delivers Brexit, warns a pro-EU former Tory minister
Robert Halfon said there could be 'serious social unrest' in some parts of the country
THERESA May risks riots in the streets unless she delivers Brexit, a former pro-EU Tory Minister has claimed.
Robert Halfon – sacked as Apprentice Minister last month – said there could be “serious social unrest” in some parts of the country.
Speaking to the BBC, the working class campaigner said he had voted Remain and firmly believed Britain should “support an alliance of democracies”.
But he told Daily Politics: “I’ve firmly come to the view that the public voted to leave, they didn’t vote to be part of bits of it.
“And I think there could be serious potentially social unrest in parts of the country and also a rise of a new kind of Ukip.
“I think there would be many angry people who would feel that their democracy was being subverted.
“We have to accept the democratic will of the people.”
His comments came after he called for the Conservatives to create their own version of Momentum to take on the resurgent opposition.
The hard-left activist group grew out of Jeremy Corbyn's 2015 Labour leadership campaign and went on to help Labour win or hold dozens of marginal seats in last month’s election.
Writing in The Times Red Box, Mr Halfon said the Tories faced "potential annihilation" in the next general election unless they "radically change our party and build a younger right-of-centre support base".
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He said Mrs May's disastrous election exposed the lack of people on the ground to help out.
Mr Halfon wrote: "Raising millions of pounds to be poured on CCHQ to conduct the air war when the grassroots infrastructure is either ageing or non-existent is not a great way to run a campaign.
"If the left can regularly send 250 activists in one day to a marginal constituency and the local Conservative party can, if they are lucky, muster 30 ... then who is going to be more successful at getting the vote out?"
Arguing the "Tory Momentum" must have some level of independence from the main party, he added: "To attract right-of-centre activists, it must be seen as something a little different, something exciting and not bound by party collective responsibility.”