Smug Tory rebels should be deselected for betraying both their PM and country
The self-congratulating Conservative rebels sacrificed all loyalties and duties on the altar of their egos
WHO do the smug, self-congratulating Tory rebels who compromised their country, their party and their Prime Minister imagine they were representing?
They certainly weren’t standing up for Britain. Because the nation, having voted to Leave, sorely needs the Government to maintain a laser-like focus on negotiating the best deal — without worrying if 11 Remainers will swallow it.
Nor was their concern Parliament’s sovereignty — or, like Leavers, they would have spent years campaigning to release it from subservience to Brussels.
Nor was it their own voters. Several, including Anna Soubry and Nicky Morgan, represent Leave constituencies.
And nor was it their party.
In June they were elected on a Tory manifesto promising the Brexit to which Theresa May is committed, including leaving the Single Market and Customs Union. Now they have undermined it and destabilised the party at its highest point in months, thanks to Mrs May’s Brussels breakthrough last week.
So why do it? Ken Clarke at least has never hidden his devotion to Brussels over 40 years. The rest have no excuse.
What unites Dominic Grieve, Soubry and Morgan — other than being lawyers — is being sacked from the Tory front bench and holding a grudge ever since.
Who seriously believes they would give a damn about a Parliamentary veto on the Brexit deal were they still in the Cabinet? They would toe the line and rightly so at this pivotal moment.
If these Tories genuinely cared for democracy they would be fanatical about fulfilling the biggest mandate in our history and its only logical course.
Instead their selfish stupidity has emboldened those who would subvert it, with unthinkable consequences, by negating 17.4million votes. The increasingly unhinged Lord Adonis called it “the first step towards reversing Brexit”.
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Vince Cable said it can now “be stopped”.
Even more dangerously, these Tories have fed the delusion in Brussels that Britain will lose its bottle and reverse Brexit. Austria’s Chancellor admitted it yesterday. Ireland, led by gobby grandstander Leo Varadkar, now wants a FIVE-YEAR transition before we leave.
Luxembourg’s PM, by contrast, spoke sense. “Westminster should trust that Theresa May will do the best for the UK,” he said, and he is exactly right.
If the Grieves, Soubrys, Morgans and Heidi Allens truly wish to champion democracy, they should put their own jobs on the line. Their local parties should deselect all 11 rebels and make them fight again for their candidacy as MPs.
We strongly doubt Tory members, mostly Leavers, will give these self-indulgent Europhile showboaters a second chance.