Jacob Rees-Mogg insisted the next Conservative leader must “believe in Brexit” and have the power to appeal to the “broader electorate”. Speaking on his LBC show, Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Conservative MP for North East Somerset, also took a swipe at Theresa May, insisting he did not think “anybody who wants to do a deal with Jeremy Corbyn can lead the Conservative party.” He said: “I think it’s essential that any new leader of the party is a Brexiteer and believes in Brexit.

“I don’t think anybody who wants to do a deal with Jeremy Corbyn can lead the Conservative party.

“That is the worst possible option after the results last week when the two main parties were roundly dismissed by the electorate to try and stitch things up with the Labour Party is simply a mistake, it’s rejecting what the electorate has asked for.”

He added: “It needs somebody who wants to implement the result of 17.4million voters.

“There’s no real prospect of success for the Conservative party unless it can reunite with the many Brexiteers who have left to join Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party.

I think it’s essential that any new leader of the party is a Brexiteer and believes in Brexit

Jacob Rees-Mogg

“That’s not just people like my sister, but leading donors who are leaving the party and deciding to give their money to the Brexit Party.

“If they’re not brought back to the Conservative party, then winning the next election is going to be extremely difficult.

“It needs to be someone on that side of the argument, who is a committed Brexiteer, not somebody who thinks it needs to be temporised or ameliorate, who really sees the virtues and advantages of Brexit.”

Mr Rees-Mogg also claimed the candidate would need to “appeal to the broader electorate” to “persuade all generations to vote Conservative”.

He said: “While Brexit is important, and delivering it is essential. In the end, we will have left the European Union and we need then to have steam to go forward to do other things.”

The Prime Minister has been under pressure from her own party to set out a roadmap for her departure, with her Brexit plan already having been defeated three times in the Commons.

The chairman of the Conservative backbench 1922 Committee Sir Graham Brady, who met the Prime Minister privately on Tuesday, made clear she had not offered any further clarity about her future.

Sir Graham said she would meet the committee’s 18-strong executive next week amid grassroots fury over the party’s worst local elections performance in 24 years.

Earlier this week Downing Street made clear the Prime Minister was not ready to go beyond her earlier promise to the 1922 to quit as Tory leader when the first phase of Brexit negotiations – dealing with the divorce terms – is complete.

They said: “The Prime Minister made a very generous and bold offer to the 1922 Committee a few weeks ago that she would see through phase one of the Brexit process and she would leave and open up for new leadership for phase two.”

But, speaking to the BBC on Saturday, Sir Graham said: “It would be strange for that not to result in a clear understanding (of when she will leave) at the end of the meeting.”

It comes with the Government still in Brexit negotiations with the Labour Party after Mrs May reached out to leader Mr Corbyn last month to help try and deliver Brexit.

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