Brussels must be chortling as these traitors in er mine bet ray 17.4 million voters

OH, HOW they must be laughing their socks off in Brussels. Why, they chortle, should we bother opposing the UK’s exit from the EU, when the country’s own unelected political Establishment is doing it so brilliantly for us?

On Tuesday night, in one of the greatest constitutional scandals of the postwar years, Remainer peers inflicted their 14th successive defeat on the Government’s Brexit legislation, seemingly blissfully unaware that they are cutting their throats with a public who are utterly repelled by their treachery and arrogance.

But then, when they have jobs for life, accountable to nobody, is it any surprise that they are so smugly convinced they know better than the ‘ little people’ they despise?

Indeed, these unelected cronies, dodgy party donors, superannuated political hacks and washed-up Brussels stooges threaten to plunge this country into a democratic crisis that could destroy every last vestige of voters’ faith in the way we are governed.

Even among Remain voters, increasing numbers are appalled by the way the Upper House is overstepping its powers in its efforts to sabotage Brexit and render the referendum result meaningless.

And make no mistake. Though most Remainer peers may peddle the monstrous fiction that they are merely performing their duties as a revising chamber, their true aim is nothing less than to overturn the will of the people, as expressed by voters in 2016.

For the record, that referendum was authorised by a Sovereign Act of Parliament, passed by a majority of six to one in the Commons, with politicians on both sides of the argument agreeing that the result would be binding.

On June 23, 2016, 17.4 million voted Leave, giving the biggest democratic mandate for any party or policy in British history on a turnout of more than 72 per cent.

Parliament then made the decision to trigger Article 50, starting the two-year countdown to Brexit — this time by 498 votes to 114 in the Commons.

In short, the Remoaner peers’ pretence that they are defending the constitution is just a cynical sham. On the contrary, they risk smashing the constitution to smithereens.

Look no further than those 14 amendments they have passed so far. These are no mere tweaks to the Government’s legislation, in line with the Lords’ role of ironing out anomalies and improving the wording of ambiguous clauses. They are naked attempts to sabotage the Bill — and with it, Brexit itself.

Take the vote to rule out a ‘ no- deal’ withdrawal, and so ban our negotiators from walking away from the table no matter how lousy the terms the EU may choose to offer.

Not only would this rob of us of the most powerful card in our hand, while removing any incentive for Brussels to make concessions. It could also postpone Brexit indefinitely — which is precisely what the blinkered and besotted Europhiles want.

Indeed, Cobra beer tycoon Lord Bilimoria gave the ugly game away when he blurted out ten days ago: ‘ It is Parliament, thanks to this amendment, that will have the ability to stop the train crash that is Brexit.’

Then there are the amendments aimed at keeping us shackled to the customs union and the single market — the latter passed by a majority of 29 on Tuesday night. Though you wouldn’t know it from following the BBC’s coverage, both represent shattering assaults on the verdict of the electorate.

How Jean-Claude Juncker and his chief negotiator Michel Barnier must marvel at the stupidity of our ruling class as it weakens Britain’s negotiators, betrays our exporters and relentlessly talks our country down.

With egregious arrogance, Remoaners seek to justify their conduct by saying voters were too stupid or ill-informed to understand Brexit’s complexities. Others preposterously claim there is no contradiction between honouring the referendum result and remaining in the customs union and single market.

Yet as the Europhiles are fully aware, both sides in the referendum campaign spelt out repeatedly and emphatically that withdrawing from the EU would mean leaving its two principal institutions.

Indeed, voters went to the ballot box with their eyes and ears wide open. And despite the deafening hysteria of Project Fear, the majority determined to take back control of our borders, trade, laws and money — none of which will be possible if these wrecking amendments are allowed to reach the statute book.

The bitterest irony of all is that the Europhile peers who now posture as champions of Parliamentary sovereignty are the very people who gave away Parliament’s rights for more than 40 years, cheerfully subjugating Westminster to Brussels.

So who are they, these few hundred wreckers who believe their views should carry more weight than those of 17.4 million of their fellow countrymen?

If they were distinguished elder statesmen or giants in the fields of science or business, their opinions might command at least a modicum of respect. But after years of being stuffed to the rafters with thirdraters, this bloated legislative chamber — second in size only to the National People’s Congress of China — has become an object of scorn and derision.

Here sit around 100 Lib Dems, one in eight of the total number of peers, representing a party so at odds with public opinion that it boasts less than 2 per cent of elected MPs. Others owe their places on the red leather benches to no greater distinction than having been a tennis partner of David Cameron or having pumped cash, of uncertain origin, into party coffers.

Here too, alongside hosts of superannuated Whitehall mandarins, you will find legions of seasoned passengers on the EU gravy train. Take Lord Kinnock, who has never been elected to public office in his life — or Lord Mandelson, sacked twice from the Cabinet for misconduct.

Then there is the supremely arrogant Lord ‘Fat Pang’ Patten, kicked out by his constituents in Bath but promptly rewarded with a series of plum jobs reserved for chums of the powerful — European Commissioner, Governor of Hong Kong, Chairman of the BBC, Chancellor of Oxford University.

Indeed, if Remoaner Peers want to understand why Britain voted to pull out of the EU — run as it is by unelected, unaccountable, pampered elites for their own benefit (and to hell with the wishes of 500 million Europeans) — they could start by looking in the mirror.

They might also find a clue in the tawdry supporters they attract. Take Tony Blair’s liar- in- chief Alastair Campbell, who, with his genius for turning the truth on its head, yesterday hailed Tuesday’s vote on the single market as ‘a good night for democracy’.

Have any of these EU appeasers stopped to think what would happen if, God forbid, they were to get their way and send the Government crawling back to Brussels with its tail between its legs, begging for readmission to the club? Britain would be the laughing stock of the world, utterly at the mercy of Jean-Claude Juncker and his successors.

Even if they achieve their limited end of keeping us in the single market and customs union — EU membership in all but name — they will be leaving us in a weaker position than ever before, still subject to the diktats of Brussels but no longer having any say in making the rules.

At this crucial juncture in our history, the House of Lords should be rallying behind the people and Government of our country, proclaiming Britain’s greatness and the magnificent opportunities opening up to the world’s sixth largest economy after we break free from the EU’s protectionist bloc.

Instead, they strive to weaken and humiliate us, rooting for the other side in the negotiations while seeking to drag us back to a long-distant age when a vastly privileged clique of unelected peers held sway over the lives of millions.

Over the past fortnight they have violated their constitutional role and abused their power beyond endurance. In so doing, they have surely signed their own death warrant.

If the Tories are wise, they will enter the next General Election on a solemn pledge to abolish the Lords in its present form and ask a Royal Commission to come up with proposals for an elected second chamber.

Democracy has been insulted and betrayed once too often.