ANNA SOUBRY: WHY I’LL DEFY THE PM

As last week’s Lords rebellion spreads to Commons...

THIS week the House of Lords will debate a proposal to give MPs a proper vote on the outcome of the Brexit talks, regardless of their result. The Prime Minister has said Parliament will vote on any deal agreed with the EU, but at present, if there is no deal there will be no vote.

It means that if the talks fail and we leave with nothing – an outcome described by many as ‘falling off a cliff’ – there is nothing Parliament or anyone else can do about it.

To many of us, it seems a matter of common sense that MPs should have a say on this. It is even more important that Parliament is consulted if we don’t get a deal than if we do.

Which is why, if the Lords approves this proposal, I will support it when the Brexit legislation returns to the Commons.

I have no idea how many other Conservative MPs will join me in voting against the Government. It is not something any Conservative does lightly.

And it won’t be easy. Between now and a vote on the issue, any Conservative colleagues considering voting for the proposal should do so with their eyes open. They can expect an orchestrated campaign of personal and political vilification against them. There will be abuse from internet trolls, vile letters in their Commons mail box and all manner of spoken and unspoken, veiled and not-soveiled threats from the whips.

I have dished out a few brickbats on occasion, so this is not a complaint about the political hurly-burly. There is a much bigger issue here.

IHAVE never known a political atmosphere like the current one in Westminster. There is a danger that the insidious methods used to silence all criticism of Brexit, no matter how reasoned and measured, will have disastrous consequences for our country.

It happened to John Major and Michael Heseltine last week and generally goes like this: Conservative politician questions the merits of a hard Brexit. A series of pro-hard Brexit Conservative MPs (usually the same ones each time) round on him or her in abusive terms for having the temerity to question whether a hard Brexit will lead to Britain’s streets being paved with gold.

And the pro-Brexit cheerleaders in the media pile in and give them a kicking for good measure, distorting any valid arguments along the way.

I was struck by a newspaper article by Michael Gove, in which he rightly railed against the danger of the creeping pro-Left-wing ‘monoculture’ in universities, where ‘policing speech and hostility to dissent’ was becoming ‘the new normal’. He argued: ‘The stifling of dissent and march of conformity on campuses was dangerous and had to be resisted.’

Yet that is exactly what is happening now as a ‘ hard Brexit monoculture’ takes hold. Some are determined to stifle all dissent in their zeal to make everyone ‘conform’ to their views. I and others who have done no more than dissent from supporting aspects of the Government’s policy on Brexit have received vile abuse. I received an email from a Conservative-supporting clergyman who told me to ‘burn in hell, evil bitch’. And they used to say the Church of England was the Conservative Party at prayer.

We are lucky to have a free Press. But in some parts of it you have to search hard to find items concerning any negative aspects to Brexit. Such as reports last week that lorry drivers in non-EU Turkey have to queue up to 15 miles and up to 30 hours to get into EU Bulgaria. And Turkey has the advantage of being in the Customs Union. Theresa May says the UK will not be in the Customs Union.

Or the warning by CBI president Paul Drechsler that it would be ‘irresponsible and wrong’ to leave the EU without a deal. Some British exports, including food, would face tariffs of 50 per cent, he said. Yes, fifty, 5-0.

To the Brexit-at-any-cost brigade, Mr Drechsler is not speaking up for British business – he’s just another ‘Remoaner’ to be scoffed at.

And before anyone accuses me of betraying Theresa May or my party, let me say this: I have no doubt that Mrs May sympathises with many of my arguments. I am betraying no confidences by saying I understand she has intimated as much to Conservative MPs whose word I trust.

Similarly, there are members of the Cabinet who agree with me. For some reason, they have chosen to keep their heads down. Which brings me to another concern.

WHATEVER one’s view of the Brexiteers, one thing cannot be doubted. They have maintained the ruthless military-style discipline that helped them win on June 23. They seek out and destroy their enemies brutally. I am not worried for myself. I’ve been around the block. And I have had the privilege of having been a senior Minister. Other younger, less-experienced Tory MPs are more susceptible to threats and intimidation.

Here is another quote from Gove’s article that caught my eye. ‘It is only through constant challenge that truth can stay strong and only through learning how to argue against error that successive generations can effectively defend what is right.’ That’s a bit rich from someone whose idea of ‘truth’ during the referendum campaign was to peddle fibs about the NHS getting an extra £350million a week if we leave the EU and conjured up the image of 88million people from Turkey and the Balkans arriving if we stayed in.

But let us put petty pointscoring to one side – I couldn’t agree more with Michael’s statement. That is why I will continue to challenge the Government and warn of what I perceive to be the truth and the grave consequences of the error we will inflict on successive generations if we withdraw from the EU in a reckless, dogmatic way.

Doubtless the Brexit trolls will be tapping their keyboards and getting their green-ink pens out even as you read this.

Let them do their worst. When it comes to Parliament, we should take the mainstream Brexiteers at their word.

Let us give the sovereign Parliament they claim to believe in so passionately a role in deciding this nation’s future when all the talking in Brussels is done in 2019 and Article 50 becomes what I fear will be a cold and harsh reality.

It is not a denial of democracy to seek to ensure that the Brexit people voted for on June 23 is achieved on the best possible terms for our country. If we are faced with a potentially catastrophic ‘falling off a cliff’, the least we can do is provide a parliamentary safety net.

They seek out and destroyy their enemies brutally