Hard Brexit Tories: a party within a party? – podcast

The Guardian’s Dan Sabbagh and Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan explore whether the European Research Group is as influential as ever - or has it overplayed its hand on Brexit? Plus: Joanna Walters on the Sackler family and the US opioid crisis

The European Research Group (ERG), led by Jacob Rees-Mogg, has been at the forefront of Conservative politics in recent months as it attempts to manoeuvre the party towards the hardest possible Brexit. But after winning concessions from the prime minister and flexing its muscles in parliament, the backlash has well and truly begun. Last week three MPs quit the Tory party, pointing to what they called the prime minister’s “dismal failure to stand up to the ERG … which operates openly as a party within a party”.

Now Theresa May has said she’s willing to offer MPs a vote on extending the Brexit deadline and removing the option of no deal. So how much power does the group really have? The Guardian’s Dan Sabbagh tells Anushka Asthana that if Theresa May is to secure her Brexit deal in parliament, she still needs the ERG and its votes.