Rebels with a cause

The EU Withdrawal Bill debate, which resumes in Parliament next week, needs a dash of honesty and self-reflection. Remainer MPS, such as Dominic Grieve, insist that they do not want to stop Brexit. But they do seek to bind the hands of UK negotiators and give Parliament the opportunity to reject whatever they come back from Brussels with. That amounts to the power to stop Britain leaving the EU.

The Tory rebels say they oppose a “hard Brexit”, even though each of them was elected to the Commons on a manifesto pledging to leave the single market and customs union – a manifesto that said “no deal is better than a bad deal”. That did not mean that Theresa May wants no deal, rather that it would be preferable to a deal that leaves Britain half in the EU, bound by its regulations but unable to trade freely. Moreover, the threat of walking away without an agreement strengthens Britain’s hand: that’s not a scenario that, for example, German car makers would welcome.

Why would any MP or peer want to defang the Government in the middle of negotiations? It makes sense if one considers the Remainers’ call for a “meaningful” vote on whatever the talks produce. The “meaningful” vote was in fact the referendum in 2016, the result of which the government of the day pledged to enact. Many Remainer MPS, however, want the authority to debate and reject the outcome of talks, and then force a second referendum or a legislative rethink – all in the name of parliamentary sovereignty, which they cared little for when the EU was in charge. The Remainers must be clear about the implications of what they want, so their constituents can judge whether or not it’s what they really want, too.