Cabinet’s Remainers refuse to say how they would vote on EU
Prime Minister is taken to task again over her lack of an answer to hypothetical question on a Brexit rerun
CABINET ministers who backed Remain at the European Union referendum are refusing to say if they would now vote to leave the EU – even though it is government policy.
Theresa May, the Prime Minister, was yesterday challenged in the House of Commons over why she would not give a “straightforward” answer to whether she would vote to leave the EU today.
Mrs May, who backed Remain at last year’s Brexit vote, replied: “There is no second referendum. The people of the United Kingdom voted and we will be leaving the European Union in March 2019.”
That came 24 hours after Mrs May repeatedly refused to say in an LBC radio phone-in with presenter Iain Dale whether she would vote for Brexit in another referendum.
The Daily Telegraph yesterday asked the other members of the Cabinet whether they “would now vote to leave the European Union”.
Two Cabinet ministers who backed Remain said they would now vote Leave. But at least five Cabinet ministers who backed Remain refused to say how they would vote in a fresh referendum. Another 11 – all Remain supporters – refused to respond to the Telegraph’s questions. Five other Cabinet ministers who voted Leave – Priti Patel, David Davis, Andrea Leadsom, Liam Fox and Michael Gove – all said they would still vote to leave the EU.
A spokesman for Chris Grayling, the Transport Secretary and a prominent figure in the Leave campaign, declined to say if he would vote to leave in a referendum held today, saying the question was “hypothetical”.
But Elizabeth Truss, the Chief Secretary of the Treasury who previously supported Remain, told the BBC’S Daily Politics: “All of us had to make a judgment on what we thought the future would look like.
“I made a judgment thinking it would be bad for the economy. Since we have left it has been more positive, so the facts have changed and I have changed my mind.”
Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, who campaigned for a Remain vote, said last week that he would also now vote to leave the EU. Other Remain-supporting Cabinet ministers refused to say if they would support leaving the EU in a hypothetical second referendum.
A spokesman for Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, said: “There will be no referendum.”
An aide to Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, said: “There is not going to be another referendum and she is not going to answer hypothetical questions.
“She has zero interest in rerunning the referendum.”
A spokesman for Justine Greening, the Education Secretary, said the question was “utterly irrelevant”, adding: “We had a referendum; there won’t be a second one. We are leaving the EU, everyone should focus on making a
‘There is not going to be another referendum and she is not going to answer hypothetical questions’
success of it – because it is happening.”
Damian Green, the effective deputy prime minister, told BBC Newsnight: “Nobody fought stronger than me for Remain. I don’t resile from my views. But it’s a slightly silly question.
“There isn’t going to be another referendum. The public took their view.”
Karen Bradley, the Culture Secretary, told ITV’S Good Morning Britain: “We are delivering Brexit, but what we are not answering, and what she is not answering, is a hypothetical question of something that isn’t going to happen.”