MPS WILL TRY TO DELAY LEAVING EU
Clegg and cronies’ scorn for voters sparks new fury
A PLOT by a group of MPs to keep Britain shackled to the EU has been condemned for showing “utter contempt for democracy”.
Former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg provoked outrage after lifting the lid on a cross-party group that is bent on stopping “full Brexit” by forcing the UK to stay in the single market.
The revelation comes as an online poll for the Daily Express has revealed that 99 per cent of readers would be furious if Brexit was blocked.
Last night Cabinet minister Priti Patel warned that the politicians are attempting to subvert the will of the British people by trying to delay the triggering of Article 50.
And Downing Street was forced to dispel concerns that Chancellor Philip Hammond – seen as a leading Remainer in the Government – was preparing to resign.
The row broke out as SNP First Minister
Nicola Sturgeon also hardened her stance on trying to engineer an independence referendum in Scotland unless the Government backs down and gave the green light to her MPs to join the plot.
The plot by pro-EU MPs to delay Article 50 and force the Government to accept that the UK needs to stay in the single market would mean that Britain would still be controlled by Brussels, not be allowed to control immigration and still have to fund EU bureaucrats.
Yesterday Mr Clegg admitted that there is a plot involving him and exLabour leader Ed Miliband joining forces with shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer and Tories Nick Herbert, Anna Soubry and Stephen Phillips to renew calls for MPs to be given a vote before the Government can trigger Article 50.
Error
He also admitted that if MPs voted against the Government’s plans then the Prime Minister would be forced to pause the official withdrawal process, which is meant to happen before the end of March.
He added: “Yes, and by the way that would be a very good thing because I think Theresa May has made already a fundamental tactical error by saying that she’s going to trigger Article 50 in March of next year, she’s already in doing so lost about a quarter of her negotiating timetable. “As anybody in Europe will tell you, nothing is going to meaningfully happen until the end of next year until after the German election.”
He then suggested that the main aim was to keep Britain in the single market and to force ministers to include that in their negotiation plan.
Mr Clegg, now Liberal Democrat EU spokesman, said: “It is an attempt to ensure that as the Government pursues its mandate of pulling us out of the EU, it does so in a workable way, a legal way and crucially in a way that doesn’t throw the single market baby out with the EU bath water.”
But Ms Patel, the International Development Secretary who sits on the Brexit Cabinet committee, warned against “subverting the democratic will”.
She likened Brexit negotiations to high-stakes gambling and insisted the Government cannot reveal its hand in advance. She said: “If I were to sit down and play poker with you this morning, I’m not going to show you my cards before we even start playing the game.”
Ms Patel was also dismissive of claims that Parliament needs to decide the negotiating strategy.
She rejected suggestions that the referendum had been solely about Parliament’s sovereignty and that not getting MPs to vote on the strategy would damage democracy.
She said: “I’d say respectfully that the job of the Government is to deliver the job of the referendum. The Prime Minister has said a number of times that Brexit means Brexit. We’ve seen the largest vote in this country this year through the EU referendum.
“The British people have spoken and we’re going to deliver for them. This is not about using Parliament as a vehicle to subvert the democratic will of the British public. Debates are happening.”
There was a furious response from the leading Brexit campaign group, Leave Means Leave, which accused the MPs of “demonstrating utter contempt for democracy”.
Last night Tory MEP David Campbell Bannermen, a senior member of Leave Means Leave, praised Daily
Express readers for making their feelings clear about the anger which would be provoked if Brexit is blocked.
He said: “Express readers like the rest of the country are right to expect MPs to not block the biggest democratic decision in British history.”
Taking aim at Mr Clegg, he added: “He and his metropolitan elite parliamentarians who are seeking to delay Article 50 are betraying British voters and damaging confidence.
“British business has responded very well to the Brexit vote, despite the apocalyptic predictions made by Clegg and his Project Fear colleagues.
“Article 50 must be invoked as set out by the PM and Brexit delivered so that investors, businesses and consumers will continue to put their confidence in the British economy.”
Support
The plot against Brexit has gathered pace after the Government confirmed it intends to leave the EU completely.
Since Mrs May’s speech at the Tory conference where she made it clear that Britain will leave the single market, pro-EU MPs have complained that she is seeking a “hard” Brexit.
However, last week European Council President Donald Tusk confirmed that Britain only has two options, either to leave the EU and membership of the single market or remain as an EU member.
Last night Downing Street dismissed claims that Mr Hammond will resign as Chancellor because he is being shut out of key meetings because of his reported support for Remain.
A No 10 source said: “This is just being briefed by MPs from that group [Clegg and his allies] to pretend they have support within the Cabinet. They don’t. The Cabinet is united.
“This is the third attempt by this group to do the same thing and try to block Brexit. They failed the other two times.”
BY WHAT twisted logic can Nick Clegg, one of the worst political leaders of modern times, justify his preposterous claim that he is not trying to subvert democracy by demanding a Commons vote on the terms of Brexit?
Like the rest of the embittered moaners in the Remain camp, he cannot believe that on June 23 people knew exactly what they were voting for and did so with glad hearts, despite the lies of a snobbish metropolitan elite.
How dare Clegg heap disdain on the 17 million who stood up for Britain’s interests and voted for Brexit. His argument is so juvenile he even invents a word for them – in “brenial”.
It is time those on the losing side of this debate grew up. Accusing Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson and Michael Gove of being “opportunists and chancers” and attacking their campaign’s “mendacity” serves only to diminish Clegg’s pigmy stature still further (if that were possible).
There is a nasty rump in the Commons, whose numbers include George Osborne, which refuses to accept that Project Fear scared no one because ordinary people were too smart to be hoodwinked by slippery MPs.
There is a serious warning for them in the poll of our readers that shows 99 per cent would be furious if Brexit were to be blocked by chicanery. We are sure our readers could make up a very good word for the Cleggs and the Osbornes.