Jacob Rees-Mogg blasts David Lammy for comparing Tory Brexiteers to Nazis

Jacob Rees-Mogg has blasted "foolish" David Lammy after the prominent Labour MP defended his comparison of Tory Brexiteers to Nazis.

The high-profile campaigner for a second Brexit referendum said the comparison "wasn't strong enough".

His comments came as he hit out at members of the European Research Group (ERG) of Tory MPs who have urged Prime Minister Theresa May to take a tougher stance on EU withdrawal.

And ERG chair Mr Rees-Mogg hit back on Sunday evening, saying he "feels sorry" for the Tottenham MP.

He tweeted: "I feel sorry for Mr Lammy, comparing a Parliamentary ginger group with an organisation and creed that killed six million Jewish people makes him look foolish and his comments unbalanced. It damages his reputation."

Mr Lammy defended his views when asked on BBC1's The Andrew Marr Show whether a comparison he previously made between the ERG and the Nazi Party and South African racists was unacceptable.

Mr Marr played a recording of a comment made by Mr Lammy on March 23 in which he said: "I’m just looking over there at Winston Churchill. On the 30^th of September 1938, he stood up in parliament and he said we would not appease Hitler.

"I’m looking across to Nelson Mandela who would not give in to apartheid. We say we will not give in to the ERG. We will not appease. We will not appease."

Mr Marr's response was: "By implication you’re comparing the ERG to the Nazi party or at least to the South African racists. Now whatever you think about the ERG that was an unacceptable comparison – wasn’t it?"

The Tottenham MP replied: "I would say that that wasn't strong enough.

"In 1938 there were allies who hatched a plan for Hitler to annex part of Czechoslovakia, and Churchill said no, and he stood alone.

"We must not appease. We're in a situation now, and let me just be clear, I'm an ethnic minority.

"We have, in the ERG, in Jacob Rees-Mogg, someone who is happy to put onto his web pages the horrible, racist AfD [Alternative for Germany] party, a party that's Islamophobic and on the far right."

Mr Lammy added: "They're happy to use the phrase 'grand wizard'. KKK is what it evokes to me when I think of that phrase and the Deep South.

"I'm sorry, but very, very seriously, of course we should not appease that, of course we should not appease that."

Mr Marr responded: "Jacob Rees-Mogg has been absolutely clear that he does not endorse the AFD and the Grand Wizard stuff, we don’t know where that came from. It’s a dangerous thing surely to accuse him of being close to Nazi ideology."

Mr Lammy continued: "We do know that Boris Johnson is with Steve Bannon who is a white supremacist. We do know that there are links between Viktor Orban, Salvini and others.

"I’m not backing off on this. Never will I back off on this on behalf of my constituents and the BBC should not allow this extreme hard right fascism to flourish."

The AfD was founded in 2013 as a Eurosceptic party in Germany, and has since campaigned for tougher immigration laws. Mr Rees-Mogg has previously denied supporting the party.

Mr Lammy added: "What kind of country are we going to be like if these people are running it?"

When it was put to Mr Lammy that he was saying Mr Rees-Mogg and former foreign secretary Boris Johnson are equivalent to Nazis, Mr Lammy said: "Ask Boris Johnson why he's hanging out with Steve Bannon."