The Brexiteers owe it to all Conservatives to seek unity now. If not, I fear the ... DEATH OF MY PARTY

PEOPLE could be forgiven for assuming that because Boris Johnson and Michael Gove were at the helm of Brexit, the Conservative Party ‘won’ the referendum. That would be a serious mistake. The majority of the Cabinet and Tory MPs, along with a vast number of the party’s traditional supporters, are intellectually, politically and emotionally in favour of our country remaining at the heart of the European Union.

There is as profound a sense of despair among this vital core of the party as I have ever known.

The black propaganda of the Brexiteers says that these people have sold out their birthright to some mystical concept of a federalist superstate.

But, in reality, they are practical men and women who understand the need to use influence in order to secure noble objectives.

Put at its simplest, they are Brits who believe that this country matters – and that in order to continue to matter, we have to be close to the levers of power.

These people are the spiritual and political inheritors of every Conservative prime minister since the war; of Harold Macmillan, whose ‘wind of change’ speech articulated the end of empire and a new European destiny; of Ted Heath, a practical politician who had witnessed the horrors of the Second World War and saw in Europe a stabilising force to prevent it from ever happening again; of Margaret

There is despair among the Tories’ core

Thatcher, who in signing the Single European Act shared more of British sovereignty with the Continent than any of her predecessors or successors; and of John Major, whose opt-outs from Maastricht proved Britain’s ability to act in our essential self-interest.

This brings us to David Cameron, who removed the toxic reference to ‘ever closer union’ from our relationship with European colleagues.

I have watched the growth of Euroscepticism since the late 1980s, fanned by the economic stresses that have beset many advanced economies.

Politicians and their acolytes in the national press have persistently sought to divert the anger and frustration of necessary change onto the shoulders of the hapless ‘monsieur Humphrey’ in Brussels. They blamed the Brussels machine for the often irritating consequences of integrating a single market.

Meanwhile, Nigel Farage did the dirty work in the streets of Britain by exploiting fears of immigration. Little was heard of the immigrants we needed to look after the elderly, man the Health Service, provide our public services and support our industry and commerce by importing the skilled and energetic people we have in such short domestic supply.

Now the referendum is over, and the leadership of the Tory Party is vacant.

It is now the unity of the party which should preoccupy those of its members who forced David Cameron from office, only months after he had secured the first overall majority for the party since 1992.

It is pointless not to acknowledge that the party is deeply divided – there would not have been a referendum otherwise. It is equally unrealistic to assume that those who remained loyal to David Cameron are now about to roll over and proclaim that black is white.

We have no choice but to concede that the referendum expressed a marginal preference in favour of leaving the single market. We warned that to sever these connections would cause great damage to our country unless there was a clear alternative. We demanded to know what the plan for our divorced future would look like. They told us that there was time to sort this out. They were wrong.

The turmoil on the markets shows that Project Fear has already become Project Fact.

If this continues, proving the Brexit case to be false, it is essential for the all-party EU parliamentary group in the House of Commons – which represents our national interests – to remain in place so that voters have a voice amid the turmoil. The stock markets have plunged, taking the nation’s savings, insurance and pension cover with them. The pound has gone the same way, with the inevitable consequence for prices. The Bank of England has had to offer £250 billion to prevent panic in the markets.

In Frankfurt, Paris and Milan they are talking of attacking our financial services businesses in the City of London.

In Brussels, our commissioner Jonathan Hill has already had to depart, while the Prime Minister is being excluded from the governing Council of Ministers – with all the humiliation that implies. This is all in the space of two days.

After a campaign, of which one of the nastiest aspects was the dismissal of anyone in a position of leadership as a member of the ‘outof-touch elite’, it is that same ‘elite’ which is left to pick up the pieces.

Within 48 hours of the referendum, we can see that the Europeans who the Brexiteers claimed would be forced to offer us generous access arrangements to their market, actually want us to go – and go now.

They face domestic elections, and they want the uncertainty to end.

SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has already begun the process of dismembering the UK by calling for a second Scottish referendum.

We have a great gaping hole in Britain’s future.

We have heard endlessly from the Brexit leaders about the restoration of national sovereignty, but not a word about how that sovereignty would be exercised prior to approval of the new Brexit arrangements. Is Parliament expected to play a role? Is there to be a second referendum?

It is one thing to jump into a gaping hole, but jumping is the easy bit: once you have done so, you are still left inside a gaping hole. Devising a way out is quite another matter.

The Tory Party is at its greatest as a one-nation party.

That is not just about social inclusion, in terms of the obligation which those with power and privilege owe to those at the other end of the scale, but it is also about generational inclusion: the future of the party depends on its ability to recruit from each successive generation. It is there that the Brexit agenda is so toxic.

Competition between European countries will intensify as we face the massive state-financed technology industries of America, China, India and many others.

In policy field after policy field, from climate change and drug running to tax avoidance, we have to ensure that the isolationist attitude of the Brexiteers doesn’t cut off the younger generation from the cultural and social inter-relations that modern technology encourages them to take for granted.

Within hours of the result, I had heard about a European grant for long-term medical research being cancelled. The Brexiteers responded to all these issues with platitudes of good intent.

The younger members of the public – and Parliament – will insist on substance and detail. It is the responsibility of a united Conservative Party to ensure they get it.

The unity of the Tory Party is an essential ingredient for its success at the polls.

The most instructive thing I ever heard Margaret Thatcher say was that she never entered a room without knowing how to get out of it. The Brexiteers have ignored this sound advice.

Now, the unity of the Conservative Party will depend on finding answers acceptable to both sides of the debate.

We owe it to future generations to ensure this is not the death of the Tory Party as I have known it.

Jumping into a hole is easy... but getting out?