Tory wreckers hope finally to smash Brexit

The latest attempt to sabotage the PM is a damning insight into the Remainers’ psyche

Not long ago, “rebel Remainers” in the Tory party swore faithfully that they voted for the Benn “Surrender Act” because they wanted to ensure Boris Johnson got a deal. I can vividly recall how, in the House of Commons, they all nodded sagely when Oliver Letwin stated that this was their only goal. Yet within just a few weeks, many of those nodding heads now seem to be shaking heads. Philip Hammond, Dominic Grieve and their cohorts, panicking at the possibility that Boris Johnson may now get a deal, have seemingly started hatching a plot to force the UK to stay in the EU beyond October 31.

We shouldn’t be surprised. After all, so many of these complainants have form when it comes to changing their position on the issue of Brexit. After Britain voted to Leave, they vowed to uphold the result, and decried a second referendum. Grieve himself said in 2016: “If you invoke Article 50 it is a one way street to exit, with no agreement … if necessary”. Yet now it seems these and other pledges are to be trashed.

As well as abandoning democratic commitments, many have even taken to casually abandoning their previous political views. Take, for example, the issue of free trade, a cornerstone of Conservative policy. Poverty around the world has been dramatically reduced as a result of open markets and freer and fairer competition. Yet astonishingly, only last week Philip Hammond took aim at the idea that Brexit Britain would be able to increase its GDP significantly by doing trade deals around the world.

Needless to say, he drew on the very flawed Treasury forecast produced while he was chancellor. This is the one that ignored international evidence to the contrary and used very negative assumptions on migration – and even more brazenly referred to unspecified “implementation difficulties”. Unsurprisingly, the research essentially concluded that the positive effects of any non-eu trade deals struck after agreeing a Brexit deal with Brussels would be minimal. Such a ridiculous assessment flies in the face of basic global economic history. Not least the repeal of the UK’S Corn Laws in 1846, a move which led to decades of growth; Singapore’s post-war GDP per capita growth to 155 per cent of that of our own country today; and the fact that liberal trade deals over 30 years have boosted Australian GDP by a remarkable 5.4 percent. Mr Hammond’s position also flagrantly contradicts a range of successful independent forecasters that show the boost to the UK economy would be between two to four per cent.

The former chancellor’s puzzling attitude to free trade lends a worrying insight into his political psyche. One wonders whether he has become so corroded by hatred of Brexit that he is determined to see no benefit whatsoever in striking a deal of any kind. Even some of his fellow Conservative rebels are concerned by his extremism: one who wants to support a deal has described him as “totally paranoid”.

Then there is Mr Grieve. Remember how he has, twice in the last few months, forced through very significant legislation in constitutional smash-and-grabs, allowing MPS less than one day to examine the details. Now the PM hopes to bring a deal before us and get the bill through quickly, his attitude has changed. Mr Grieve claims it would be wrong to force through such important constitutional legislation in seven days. He has declared, it “improper”, unaware of the irony.

Brexiteers need to brace themselves. Mr Hammond and Mr Grieve form part of a die-hard Tory rebel clique. It may be plotting to give Speaker John Bercow the power to send an extension letter to Brussels – or even appoint him PM in a ‘constitutional coup’ by voting down the Queen’s Speech. These hardcore Remainers simply want to stop Brexit and defy the will of the people by any device – whether that be by revoking the referendum result, having a second referendum or taking over government.

Evidently, this group of saboteurs are determined to prevent Brexit whatever the cost. But their days of subterfuge are over, and their anti-democratic agenda is now exposed to the British public.