Brexit blast as Remainer quits
Adonis steps down with attack on PM
ARCH-ReMAIneR Lord Adonis quit his Government job last night with a bitter diatribe about Brexit and Theresa May.
In a 1,000-word resignation letter, the Labour peer branded Brexit a ‘dangerous populist and nationalist spasm worthy of Donald Trump’ and said he was leaving his infrastructure tsar role to oppose it ‘relentlessly’ from the Lords.
Lord Adonis also accused Mrs May of becoming ‘the voice of Ukip’ and ‘the extreme nationalist Right wing’ of her party.
He suggested Britain’s ‘isolation’ after leaving the eU could put security at risk in the same way as the Victorian policy of ‘splendid isolation’ that preceded the First World War.
no 10 announced his resignation as national Infrastructure Commission chairman after officials learned he planned to quit in the new year with an attack on Mrs May.
Sources suggested Lord Adonis – handed a life peerage by Tony Blair in 2005 – had been on the verge of being sacked. One Government source said: ‘He’s been moving closer towards the exit door with each new onslaught he makes against Brexit. He’s walked through the door before he was pushed.’
Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith said: ‘Lord Adonis’s departure is long overdue. These comments come from a man who never got elected – doesn’t he think it a touch elitist to have been placed in the House of Lords without ever having fought an election only to pontificate on what he calls populism but most would refer to as democracy?’
Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen described the peer’s resignation letter as ‘propaganda’. ‘This is what happens when members of the Labour Party are promoted to Government positions,’ he said.
Lord Adonis was appointed as head of the £100billion national Infrastructure Commission by George Osborne in 2015 and reappointed by Mrs May last year. He was paid £85,000 a year for a three-day week.
But his repeated outbursts over Brexit led to demands for him to be sacked. In July he compared Brexit to the appeasement of Hitler, describing it as ‘self-mutilation’.
He has also called for a second referendum, and for Britain to stay inside both the eU single market and customs union.
In his resignation letter, the former Blairite policy adviser launched a savage attack on the PM, saying the eU Withdrawal Bill was the ‘worst legislation of my lifetime’.
Tory MP Anna Soubry, a Remain supporter, said: ‘We should be building a Brexit consensus not perpetuating or deepening division. Adonis was doing important work overseeing record levels of investment in infrastructure – a sound Tory policy. He’ll be missed.’