May warns about conning electors
THERESA MAY told MPS that if they failed to deliver Brexit they would be “guilty of the most egregious con trick”.
The ex-prime minister, whose own deal was rejected three times by MPS, weighed in for successor Boris Johnson to help get his version through.
Mrs May said “the very future of our politics” was at stake. “And it is simple, do we want to deliver Brexit? Do we want to deliver on the result of the referendum?”
She added: “When the two main parties represented in this House stood on manifestos in the 2017 for the first Saturday sitting in 37 years since the Falklands conflict failed to reach any conclusion on the Brexit debate.
Former Labour minister Caroline Flint, who backed the deal, and has defied her party to ensure the referendum was respected laid into Sir Oliver and the other architects of the amendment and the recent Benn Act.
She said: “This is a panic measure by the right honourable member for Dorset West (Sir Oliver
Letwin). In voting for the amendment, we will be forced, even if a deal is approved, to seek an extension to January 31, underlying that the sponsors of the Benn Act had only one motivation, and that was to delay Brexit and stop it.”
Last night a Downing Street source said: “The delay has forced the civil service to substantially ramp up no-deal preparations.
“If MPS decide to vote for the deal next week, the process of slowing down no-deal preparation general election to deliver Brexit, did we really mean it?
“I think there can only be one answer to that and that is yes, we did mean it.yes, we keep faith with the British people.yes, we want to deliver Brexit.”
Mrs May added: “If this Parliament did not mean it, then it is guilty of the most egregious con trick on the British people.”
She said there could not be a second referendum “because some people did not agree” with the result of the first one.
can begin.” The vote though has made no-deal a more likely option, despite MPS claiming they wanted to remove it.
Mr Johnson will also be trying to win back the 10 Democratic Unionist MPS from Northern Ireland who sided with Remainers.
There were suggestions the DUP could now back a second referendum but Westminster leader Nigel Dodds appeared to suggest a change to the deal could win them back.