Tory MP Charlie Elphicke challenges Labour MPs to back his landmark Brexit bill and urges Theresa May to ‘speed up’ the Article 50 process
Senior backbencher urges ALL MPs to vote for bill as proof they accept the nation’s landmark referendum verdict
A SENIOR Tory backbencher will try to enforce Britain’s EU departure with a new Brexit law and challenge Labour MPs to back it.
Dover MP Charlie Elphicke will introduce a Ten Minute Rule bill to officially begin the break away from Brussels.
Ministers traditionally don’t vote on the bills, but the former Tory whip will call on all Tory backbench, Labour and SNP MPs to vote for it as proof they accept the nation’s landmark referendum verdict.
Mr Elphicke also wants his bill to hold the government’s feet to the fire on its promise to deliver on Brexit and urges Theresa May to “get on with it”.
He will speak just as Mrs May finishes her weekly PMQs session on Wednesday.
If enough MPs vote for the bill, it could force No10 to speed up Brexit.
Mr Elphicke told The Sun: “The sooner the Prime Minister invokes Article 50 the better.
“This bill also gives Labour MPs a chance to show they accept the will of the British people.”
Mrs May has said she won’t trigger the two year-long Article 50 process until next year, meaning the UK won’t be out until at least 2019.
But Mr Elphicke’s bill is entitled, ‘European Union (UK Withdrawal from Membership): That leave be given to bring in a bill to implement the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from membership of the European Union; and for connected purposes’.
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The MP will also set out British voters’ two red lines for Brexit negotiations with the EU - ending uncontrolled EU immigration and “no more billions” to Brussels.
He added: “Brexit was also a vote for change in our national way of life.
“For too long, Britain has worked in the interests of the Philip Greens of this world, rather than the working class kids of Dover, Dartford, Doncaster and Darlington.
“In post-Brexit Britain, the people of the towns and regions of our great nation must come before the jet-set elite.”
It emerged that veteran Tory MP Ken Clarke has told his constituents that the June 23 referendum result “is not binding”.
In an email leaked to the Guardian, the Conservative grandee insisted most politicians only “paid lip service to the supposedly democratic nature of the exercise”.
Instead, Mr Clarke risked infuriating Brexit voters by saying he may try to vote down our departure, insisting it was not an “instruction to any MP on how to vote”.
Ex-Deputy PM Nick Clegg predicted International Trade Secretary Liam Fox would “resign in a huff” within 18 months when it becomes clear he has no trade deals to negotiate.
The former Lib Dem boss said: “He genuinely doesn’t have a job. If the UK doesn’t leave the customs union – which apparently is still an open question in Whitehall – then he’s heading a department without purpose, because he cannot negotiate all these apparently magnificent trade deals with Papua New Guinea and Tanzania”.