Tories’ backbench drivers are in charge now
What a time to be alive for a backbench Brexiteer. Think of the long and lonely road they’ve trodden. For years – decades – dismissed as cranks and oddballs, snubbed and resented by their leaders, perennially overlooked for high office; their guiding mission treated as an eccentrics’ obsession, like trainspotting or collecting golliwogs.
Yet now – unexpectedly, magically, euphorically – they find themselves transformed from losers into winners. All thanks to the EU referendum they’d clamoured for so tirelessly, year in, year out. And, nine months on from that delirious day, looking as if they still can’t quite believe it happened, here they are on their beloved old benches, drunk on glory, dancing their tribal dance of victory. The promised land, though, has not yet been reached. And, until it is, they know they must remain alert, sniffing the Commons air for the tell-tale whiff of treachery.
Yesterday David Davis, the Brexit Secretary, made a statement about the Great Repeal Bill, which aims to convert existing EU laws into UK laws.
Backbenchers were told it was a necessary part of the Brexit process. All the same, they were on their guard.
“The notion of incorporating EU regulations and case law gives me the collywobbles!” bawled Sir Desmond Swayne, his enormous white Elvis sideburns bristling.
Richard Drax sounded impatient. “Those who wish to remain in the EU bang on about EU rules and regulations,” he harrumphed. “Surely the whole point of leaving the EU is that we can live under our own rules and regulations that are suitable to us!”
Christopher Chope was confident, however, that the horror would be shortlived. “Can I thank the Secretary of State for making clear,” he crooned, “that two years from today, our sovereign parliament will have the power to amend, repeal or improve all this ghastly EU legislation!”
Barry Sheerman – a pro-EU Labour MP – shook his head.
The Brexit Secretary, he sighed, would be wise to resist “pandering too much to the barmy army behind him”.
Mr Davis was his usual breezy self. Interviewed on the Today programme about his forthcoming negotiations with the EU, he declared that while it was conventional to play down expectations, he would, he trumpeted, “aim as high as conceivably possible”.
But then, I suppose he has no choice. He used to be a backbench Eurosceptic himself. He knows how exacting their standards are. Compromise will not do.
The rest of the Cabinet must know it, too. Today the backbenchers are in charge. And if the present Prime Minister fails to deliver all they’ve hungered for, these past 20, 30, 40 years – well, I’m sure they’ll find us one who will.