LONDON: A Conservative MP who led a rebellion against Prime Minister Theresa May over Brexit legislation says he has been receiving death threats and has passed them on to the police, British media reported on Friday.

Dominic Grieve, a former attorney general, told the Guardian newspaper that such threats have “no part in the political process of a democracy” and said he was disturbed by the bitterness of the political atmosphere.

He also took issue with the rightwing Daily Mail, which is strongly in favour of Brexit and has branded the 11 rebel Conservative MPs as “self-consumed malcontents.”

“The form of reporting that the Daily Mail adopts is an incitement to obscuring what the issues actually are. That then adds to the atmosphere,” he said.

Grieve led the rebel Conservatives in voting against the government this week to ensure that parliament has a more decisive say over any Brexit agreement, dealing a blow to May’s standing as party leader.

Speaking on the BBC, Grieve said: “I’m not very concerned about knives being out for me.”

“I’m in parliament to do my duty by my constituents and by my country... I’m sorry to hear if colleagues think so ill of me but it’s not going to affect what I do one jot,” he said.

Another rebel MP, Antoinette Sandbach, said she had also received “oblique” death threats, including phrases such as “you’ll get what’s coming to you,” The Guardian reported.

The European Union agreed on Friday to move Brexit talks onto trade and a transition pact but some leaders cautioned that the final year of Britain’s divorce negotiations could be fraught with peril.

On the second day of a Brussels summit, EU leaders agreed “sufficient progress” was made after a deal on citizens’ rights, the Irish border and Britain’s outstanding payments, giving negotiators a mandate to move on to the main phase of talks.

“EU leaders agree to move on to the second phase of Brexit talks. congratulations PM Theresa May,” European Council President Donald Tusk, who chairs EU summits, said on Twitter.

Discussion of a transition period to calm nerves among businesses is due to start in the new year, although talks on a future free trade pact will not begin until after March — a date underlined by “guidelines” that set out how to proceed as Britain seeks to unravel more than 40 years of membership.

AFP/Reuters