Remainers lack unity

Ken Clarke MP came home from holiday, where he hadn’t been following the news, to discover that he has been asked to be PM in a possible anti-brexit government. Mr Clarke says he is up for it – and why not? Having lost two contests for the Tory leadership because of his Europhilia, it would be an ironic twist if he finally secured the top job thanks to a Remainer coup. Although the very fact that the plotters have put forward his name suggests the chances are slim. Why not Jeremy Corbyn or Jo Swinson? Because this comedy of manners is a power play – and no one wants to hand No 10 over to their main rival.

There is much to admire about Mr Clarke. He was a superb chancellor in the Nineties and, whatever one thinks of his views on the EU, he has integrity and consistency: he voted against triggering Article 50. With his love of cigars and jazz, he is a sort of physical embodiment of liberal Toryism. But could he really lead a government of Lib Dems, socialists, Scottish nationalists and a Green? The man himself is somewhat in the dark. He said he had “been on the phone… in the last couple of days just to find out what the devil’s going on”. It sounds like a very British coup.

What it’s not is a self-styled “government of national unity” because it would exclude representation of the 52 per cent who voted to leave the EU. Remain’s claim to speak for the middle ground is having a radicalising effect. It makes Brexiteers – dismissed by the elite as stupid or far-right – all the more determined to see things through. And they have a trump card. Boris Johnson’s majority might be tiny, but at least Tory Leavers look united. The Remainers cannot agree on a leadership or a programme.