Labour peer urges Remainers to unite and fight
reason why Brexit started in the first place.”
Adonis said the 17.4million voters who backed Brexit in the referendum were “absolutely entitled to their view” but added: “I’m absolutely entitled, indeed I believe it’s my duty, to say why I think that was wrong.”
He added: “Very few of the people who voted for Brexit voted, I believe, to make themselves poorer.”
Adonis lashed out at Transport Secretary Chris Grayling – a key Leave supporter at the referendum – over the “indefensible” East Coa s t f r a nch i s e decision.
Virgin Trains East Coast, a partnership between Stagecoach and Richard Branson’s Virgin, had previously agreed to pay the Government £ 3.3billion to run the service until 2023 but have been allowed to walk away three years early.
Lord Adonis said: “What we are seeing at the moment is a nervous breakdown across Whitehall.
“Part of the reason I resigned was because of the bailout of the East Coast rail franchise, which will cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds.
“I simply do not believe that would have happened pre-Brexit, when senior Whitehall civil servants were on the ball and not preoccupied with having to negotiate Brexit and making the best of a bad deal.”
In his resignation letter, Adonis told May: “Brexit is a populist and nationalist spasm worthy of Donald Trump.
“After the narrow referendum vote, a form of associate membership of the EU might have been attempted without rupturing Britain’s key trading and political alliances.
“Instead, by allying with Ukip and the Tory hard right to wrench Britain out of the key economic and political institutions of modern Europe, you are pursuing a course fraught with danger.
“Even within Ireland, there are set to be barriers between people and trade.”
Allies of the PM appeared unconcerned by his decision to quit. Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith said: “Lord Adonis’s departure is long overdue.”