MPs risk blocking Brexit, warns PM

PARLIAMENT is more likely to block Brexit than allow Britain to crash out of the EU without a deal, Theresa May was today to warn as she urged MPs to back her withdrawal agreement.

The Prime Minister was to use a speech in Stoke on the eve of the critical Commons vote on her exit plan to say that trust in politicians will suffer “catastrophic harm” if they do not implement Brexit.

Less than 36 hours before the vote Mrs May is expected to say: “I ask MPs to consider the consequences of their actions on the faith of the British people in our democracy.

“Imagine if an anti-devolution House of Commons had said to the people of Scotland or Wales that despite voting in favour of a devolved legislature, Parliament knew better and would overrule them. Or else force them to vote again.

“What if we found ourselves in a situation where Parliament tried to take the UK out of the EU in opposition to a Remain vote? People’s faith in the democratic process and their politicians would suffer catastrophic harm.

“We all have a duty to implement the result of the referendum.”

She will say that while the two sides in the 2016 vote disagreed on many things, they were united on the fact that “what the British people decided, politicians would implement”.

“On the rare occasions when Parliament puts a question to the British people directly we have always understood that their response carries a profound significance.

“When the people of Wales voted by a margin of 0.3%, on a turnout of just over 50%, to endorse the creation of the Welsh Assembly, that result was accepted by both sides and the popular legitimacy of that institution has never seriously been questioned.

“Parliament understood this fact when it voted overwhelmingly to trigger Article 50.”

Mrs May’s warning today comes as 12 Conservative former ministers have written to Tory MPs urging them to vote against her Brexit deal.

The group, said to include Boris Johnson and former Brexit secretaries David Davis and Dominic Raab, said doing so may encourage the EU to come back to the negotiating table. If Brussels refuses to reopen talks then MPs should be prepared to leave without a deal, they said in a letter.