Second referendum on Brexit ruled out
Theresa May yesterday ruled out a second Brexit referendum after another Tory former cabinet minister said she would have to rethink her plan for leaving the European Union.
Dominic Grieve, the former attorney general, said she might have to think again if it proved impossible to get a deal through the Commons.
His comments came after Justine Greening, the former education secretary, become the most senior Tory MP to back a second referendum.
Grieve did not go as far as Greening but, writing in the Evening Standard , he suggested that he too was open to the idea. ‘‘In a divided country we must either work together to get the best deal we can, and this needs compromise, or accept that Brexit cannot be implemented and think again about what we are doing,’’ he said.
However, Downing Street insisted that the prime minister would not countenance another referendum. ‘‘The British public have voted to leave the European Union,’’ said May’s official spokesman. There is not going to be a second referendum under any circumstances.’’ He added that May had been ‘‘very clear that the proposal we put forward at Chequers delivers on the will of the people in the referendum. Cabinet is behind it, businesses have come out to support it and now we need to get on with negotiating with the EU,’’ he said.
Gavin Williamson, the defence secretary, also said he was opposed to a second Brexit referendum. Asked if another vote should be on the Government’s agenda, he replied: ‘‘Not at all. The British people had a referendum. They had their say and we need to deliver on it. That’s what we’re doing.’’ Sir Bernard Jenkin, the senior Tory Brexiteer, claimed that the Chequers plan was effectively dead. ‘‘I’m afraid
‘‘The British people had a referendum. They had their say and we need to deliver on it.’’ Gavin Williamson, defence secretary
it is neither beloved by Remainers or Leavers,’’ he told Today on BBC Radio 4. ‘‘It’s also quite likely to be either rejected by the EU or more demands will be made upon it so it will be even less acceptable.’’
However, Jenkin did not back Greening’s call for a second referendum. The Eurosceptic Tory MP Anne Marie Morris told Radio 4’s World at One that she would vote against the Chequers plan if it came before Parliament.
‘‘I don’t believe I would bring down the Government. For me the important thing here is doing the right thing by the country,’’ she said.
Pressed on whether she would be prepared to bring May’s administration down over the deal, she said: ‘‘We will have to see exactly where we land up and exactly what it is [that] is on the table.’’
Two ministerial aides, Robert Courts and Scott Mann resigned from the government over the Chequers compromise.