Nick Clegg and pro-EU MPs blasted for attempt to “subvert” democracy by trying to delay Brexit
Former deputy prime minister is demanding Parliament is given a veto over the details of the Prime Minister’s Brexit negotiating strategy
NICK CLEGG and a band of pro-EU MPs were attacked for trying “subvert” democracy today after saying they hoped to delay a Brexit by nearly a YEAR.
The ex-Lib Dem chief said it would be a “very good thing” if Theresa May was forced to wait before invoking the so-called Article 50 - triggering divorce talks with the EU.
The extraordinary move came as Mr Clegg and a cross-party group of MPs demanded Parliament was given a veto over the details of the Prime Minister’s Brexit negotiating strategy.
This would force Theresa May to detail her hand to Labour, the Lib Dems, the SNP in the Commons before going into battle with Brussels to thrash out the terms of the UK’s new relationship with the EU.
Arch Eurosceptic Tory MP Steve Baker said such a demand was “nonsense”.
He told the Sun: “Imagine buying a house and telling the seller how much you’d be prepared to pay? Imagine sending an Army into battle but giving your plans to the enemy?”
Nick Clegg insisted he wasn’t trying to re-run the Referendum.
He said it was crucial that Brexit was pursued in a workable, legal way and one which “doesn’t throw the single market out with the EU bathwater”.
But challenged that a Parliamentary defeat for the PM could delay the launch of Brexit proceedings, he said: “Yes, and by the way that would be a very good thing anyway.
“Theresa May has already made a fundamental tactical error by saying that’s she’s going to trigger Article 50 in March of next year.”
“She’s already, in doing so, lost about a quarter of her (two-year) negotiating timetable because anybody in Europe will tell you, nothing is going to meaningfully happen until the end of next year after the German elections.”
Waiting until the end of Germany would force the PM to wait until at least November 2017 – meaning it would be late 2019 before Britain formally cut ties with the EU.
Furious Cabinet Minister Priti Patel immediately claimed Mr Clegg was “using Parliament as a vehicle to subvert the democratic will of the British people”.
And she was supported by Tory backbenchers who urged the ex-Deputy PM and Europhile MPs to respect the Referendum result from June 23.
Charlie Elphicke, MP for Dover, said: “The Prime Minister has a mandate of the masses – to deliver on Brexit.
“It’s extraordinary that people like Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband - who are hardly ever seen in Parliament these days - suddenly want to use Parliament to frustrate the will of the people.”
Fellow Tory Jacob Rees-Mogg added: “They should be ashamed of themselves.”
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He said: “These people want us to stay in the single market, to stay in the customs union, ideally they want us to stay in the EU. They want to reverse the will of the British people.”
The Sun on Sunday was first to reveal the call for a Parliamentary veto on the PM’s Brexit strategy today.
Nick Clegg is fronting the call for campaign group Open Britain – which wants Britain to remain in the EU’s single market. He is being backed by former Labour leader Ed Miliband, Shadow Home Secretary Kier Starmer and Eurosceptic Tories Stephen Philips and Nick Herbert.
Arch Brexiteer Iain Duncan Smith branded their move a “sick blocking tactic”. Last night he said: “Letting MPs determine every detail would be a recipe for chaos”.
The row threatens another week of bitter fighting over Brexit after a vicious seven days where MPs said it appeared as though the EU Referendum campaign earlier this year was being run all over again.
Today, Open Britain campaign group said a small online poll of 861 people signalled that 73 per cent of people backed the Parliamentary veto plan.
Mr Herbert said: “The public rightly expect us to debate how the best possible Brexit deal will be achieved.”
Europhile MPs are demanding Theresa May do all she can to keep Britain in the single market – a so-called ‘Soft Brexit’. EU leaders have warned that if Britain wants to remain a member of the single market, it will have to accept free movement for immigrants.
Speaking after Nick Clegg on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show, Priti Patel insisted Parliamentary debates were already happening over Brexit and the Government wasn’t ignoring anyone.
She said: “Respectfully, the job of the Government is to deliver the result of the Referendum. The Prime Minister has said a number of times ‘Brexit means Brexit’.
“We’ve seen the largest vote in this country this year through the EU Referendum.
“The British people have spoken and we’re going to deliver for them.”
Export help
AN export boom will stop Britain falling into recession next year, a think tank has predicted.
Exports will account for almost all the 0.8 per cent growth in the UK economy in 2017, the Ernst & Young ITEM Club said.
But inflation and unemployment are set to soar.
E&Y said: “The odds are we will avoid a recession.
“But uncertainty about our EU exit means a lot of businesses are unsure.”
