Charges against Remainers who tried to thwart her every move

Theresa May yesterday said she was ‘reluctantly’ calling an election to ‘guarantee certainty and stability for the years ahead’.

her hand was forced by opposition parties and remainer peers, who threatened to try to block Brexit or exploit the Government’s narrow majority to undermine negotiations with the eU.

here, executive Political editor Jack Doyle sets out the charge sheet against the wreckers:

SNP

NATIONALIST MPs all voted against article 50 legislation needed to trigger Brexit, and would do anything in their power to try to block the process.

First Minister Nicola sturgeon also demanded a separate deal for scotland to keep it inside the single market.

as a mark of their dedication to Brussels, europhile Nationalist MPs even sang eU anthem Ode to Joy when the article 50 Bill was going through Parliament.

The party will vote against the Great repeal Bill – which gets rid of the 1972 european Communities act and translates vast swathes of eU law into domestic legislation.

With help from Labour, Tory remainers, and the Lib Dems, they could have eventually stopped the Commons approving the final Brexit deal.

and of course they are using Brexit to demand a second independence referendum.

LABOUR

BeFOre Mrs May triggered article 50 last month, Labour’s Brexit spokesman Keir starmer raised the prospect that the party could abstain on the final deal.

Then on March 29, in an interview with the BBC’s andrew Neil, Jeremy Corbyn went further. he declared for the first time that Labour MPs would block any agreement between the UK and eU unless it delivered unfettered access to the single market.

as the party leader must have known at the time, this is an impossible outcome – and something the eU has already ruled out. he was accused of setting implausible tests in order to find an excuse to block Brexit.

The significant hardening of the Labour position made it much more likely that the house of Commons would vote the deal down – and gave remainer Tory MPs a powerful stick with which to beat the Government.

LIB DEMS

LIBeraL Democrat leader Tim Farron has proudly dubbed himself the ‘remoaner-in-chief’.

he has spent the last nine months attempting to secure the support of ardent remainers by demanding a second referendum on Brexit.

Despite having only nine MPs, the Lib Dems could – with the help of their 98 life peers – have formed a significant road block to Britain leaving the eU. In particular, they could attempt to unpick or block the legislation needed for Brexit to happen.

additionally, as Mrs May pointed out yesterday, they are also determined to obstruct in both the Commons and the Lords every single element of the Government’s domestic agenda.

recently the party’s chief whip, Tom Brake, threatened to ‘grind the Government’s agenda to a standstill’ unless the Lib Dems get their way over Brexit.

LORDS

The upper chamber is stuffed full of remainer peers, many of whom would be delighted to block Brexit or force the Government’s hand during the talks.

Leading blockers include Labour’s Lord Mandelson – who sparked outrage last week by telling the eU to ‘forget Great Britain and take care of your own interests’ – and Tories such as Lord heseltine, who recently claimed Brexit was a betrayal of the troops who won the second World War. such peers could be expected to take any and every opportunity to amend the legislation needed for Brexit, such as the Great repeal Bill.

Ministers feared remainer peers would try to amend the Immigration Bill to retain free movement for eU migrants after Brexit. They also thought the Government’s new customs laws could face attempts to keep Britain in the single market.

Mrs May hit out at ‘unelected members of the house of Lords [who] have vowed to fight us every step of the way’.