Arrogant Remain MPS are derailing Brexit
This manipulating of parliamentary sovereignty to thwart the referendum is a mockery of democracy
Last week, Parliament reasserted its sovereignty over Government in a “glorious vote”, according to some MPS. I disagree. I find a darker and more cynical motive behind it. The political classes are increasingly paying lip service to the vote while planning to prevent it. The elites are retaking control of our national decision-making using the natural political gravity of a “Remain” House of Commons. Parliament has declared Government to be in contempt of Parliament. But if it thwarts Brexit, Parliament risks being in contempt of the British people.
At the heart of this impending democratic car crash is my eloquent colleague Dominic Grieve, MP for Beaconsfield, and a group of allies on both sides of the House around him, who last week successfully passed a motion giving MPS the right to tell the Government how it should proceed with Brexit, should the Prime Minister lose the vote on the Withdrawal Agreement.
What appeared to be a restatement of MPS’ powers is actually a highly opportunistic attempt to derail Brexit. Mr Grieve invokes the idea of Parliament asserting sovereignty over Government and taking control of the Brexit process. Indeed, he all but taunts Brexiteers with the argument: this is what you want, therefore how could you possibly object? But the Remainers are using Parliament to overturn the mandate of the 2016 EU referendum. Like latter-day Thomas Mores, they believe their consciences to be sovereign.
The obsessive Remainer case skilfully put by Mr Grieve and others is fundamentally emotional, but artfully couched in legal terms. They want to stop us leaving the EU and are using their considerable skills to do what they can to make that happen. All else is frankly sophistry and legal wind. They are, for example, focused on making brilliant use of the myriad rules of Erskine May, the most authoritative work on Britain’s constitutional conventions and parliamentary procedure, a Gormenghast of arcane rules. But this is a dangerous game. It is the use of Parliament to prevent the Government fulfilling the mandate of the British people. It is the use of Parliament to overturn our exit from the European Union. It is the use of Parliament to overturn popular sovereignty.
To be a Government loyalist on this issue (I have threatened to rebel more than some new MPS, but not on Brexit) and to ask tough questions of obsessive Remainers is too often to be accused of “bullying” or some such nonsense. Never is the fundamental point answered: that this hardcore of doctrinaire types are determined to block Brexit and believe that the British people can be overruled. They behave as if they are simply martyrs whose actions can never be questioned. Too often they are treated with kid gloves by a media that equates rebellion with high ethics rather than arrogance or error. The mandate given to us by a Brexit nation is being subtly stifled. In a wonderful example of linguistic manipulation to overturn the 2016 popular vote, a new “Peoples’ Vote” is being demanded. George Orwell would have seized on the “Peoples’ Vote” as a shameless abuse of language by mendacious politicians. The people voted, in 2016, to leave.
My constituency, the Isle of Wight, voted to exit the EU. So did I, on grounds of sovereignty. I want Brexit sorted out so that we can get on with governing. Tomorrow, I will vote for the only Brexit on offer to avoid uncertainty. Does the Withdrawal Agreement represent a brilliant Brexit? No. But it is a recognisable Brexit, which gives us control of our borders and laws, while ensuring our continued co-operation with the EU on trade. Some civil servants even think it is becoming something of a diplomatic success although the process is only part-way through.
I am moderate Brexiteer. But above all, I am a democrat. I like listening to what the people say because it grounds me. I want and, more importantly, I need, to respect the mandate. I listen with a sense of dread to those members of the political class who believe themselves to be above that mandate. Remain obsessives may not like listening to the people, but they need to, for the sake of our democracy.
Bob Seely is the MP for the Isle of Wight