Theresa May would be mad not to crush pro-EU saboteurs and annihilate Corbyn’s Labour

THE Brexit saboteurs of the Commons and Lords must be faced down and crushed.

It is not their blind devotion to the EU we mind. It’s the fork-tongued deceit.

The suggestion they have some noble motive beyond simply reversing the referendum result they cannot get over.

Their ever-so-reasonable concern for “knowing a few more details” of Theresa May’s strategy before backing an Article 50 Bill is entirely phony.

Article 50 does only one thing. It serves notice on the EU. It is not dependent on “types” of Brexit.

A politician voting for it straightforwardly accepts the majority’s verdict on June 23. Those delaying it with endless amendments intend to kill it, to see their will prevail over the electorate’s.

This affront to democracy is bad enough from the likes of Nick Clegg, the ex-Lib Dem leader whose genius reduced his party from 57 MPs to eight. Or Labour pipsqueak Owen Smith, notable only for failing to topple Jeremy Corbyn. But at least they were elected.

Not so the preposterous Patience Wheatcroft, self-styled chief Brexit denier in the Lords.

May must be ready to call Remainers' bluff

“It is only right to delay triggering Article 50 until we have a clearer idea of what it entails,” the Baroness grandly pronounces — every duplicitous word a new nail in the House of Lords’ coffin.

Because, make no mistake, that Chamber is on borrowed time.

It was always controversial for a 21st Century democracy to retain an unelected second House. At least we used to value its occasional wisdom. Now that it is packed with talentless cronies, fleecing taxpayers while plotting to subvert their will, how can anyone argue for it?

The Lords needs total reinvention with far fewer peers, able still to scrutinise laws but unable to thwart the public will or that of the Government we elect.

It is absurd for Remainers like Wheatcroft to pretend to be still in the dark.

The Government has pledged post-Brexit to take back control of UK law, including on immigration, and establish “the freest possible market” with the EU and beyond. It cannot possibly give away its entire negotiating strategy before it sits down with the EU.

Yet Clegg hopes to hold Article 50 up in the Commons until the PM commits to a “soft” Brexit (“no” Brexit, in other words) and a second referendum. He is deranged by europhilia.

Mrs May will not want to call an election next year for many sound reasons, practical and political. But if Remainers’ endless amendments stall an ­Article 50 Bill she must be ready to call their bluff and do so.

She would annihilate Corbyn’s Labour and expose diehard Remain MPs to the wrath of their Leave-voting constituents.

It is the nuclear option — but a threat she would be mad to rule out.