Majority MPs could stave off Brexit

DEAR SIR — After his inglorious defeat in the referendum, David Cameron has resigned as UK Tory prime minister. However, a majority of MPs of all parties in the UK House of Commons are reportedly against Brexit. They could organise on nonparty lines to threaten a vote of no confidence in any proposed new leader, Tory or Labour or coalition, who is in favour of Brexit.

They could elect a new prime minister from among themselves, who could select his cabinet and call a general election to secure a vote of confidence from the voters for the new administration to undo the referendum result.

Opposition to this move in the house would be insufficient to block it, and the Labour Party would have little chance of winning the general election under the weak and divisive leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.

The UK’s friends and allies in Europe would have to be informed and involved in the plan, if they have not already proposed it as a workable strategy, and take the pressure off Britain for a quick Brexit.

By refusing to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty to exit, the Conservative government may of course already be working on such a plan, through the backbencher 1922 Committee and party whips.

This requires Cameron to go at once, not in three months; for Boris Johnson to be emphatically rejected as the new Tory leader — a distinct possibility — and for Remain MPs and any supporting ministers to stick together to pull the executive’s chestnuts from the fire.

All that is extremely difficult, but not impossible to pull off. It simply requires a commitment to the national interest.

What is required also is a true parliamentarian once again: a John Hampden (1595-1643) with the courage and will to fight (in his time against the king) for the sovereignty of parliament. An unlikely find, sadly, among the modern lot. Paul Whelan Via e-mail