Boris Johnson has warned that, if successful, the current round of parliamentary plots to delay or outright derail Brexit will lead to “vicious and unparalleled contempt for the whole political class” among the voting public.
Writing in the Telegraph, the former Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary said there were “large numbers of MPs” who want to “frustrate the will of the people”.
While the Vote Leave frontman’s star has waned since his resignation from Cabinet over the terms of Mrs May’s proposed deal with the EU, the two-time Mayor of London remains a leading figure among Tory Brexiteers, and a favourite among the increasingly marginalised party membership.
“Already the office of the Speaker is starting to silt up with complicated wheezes from our legislators, and in the coming weeks there will so many amendments, feints, ruses, motions that the voter will ask himself or herself – just what do our MPs think they are doing?” he suggested.
The most Byzantine of the plots currently being advanced by Remainer politicians originates, once again, from former Attorney-General Dominic Grieve, which would allow a cross-party minority of 300 MPs to seize control of parliamentary proceedings from Government and advance legislation to block or delay Brexit day — currently enshrined in law as March 29th, 2019, by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018.
Nikki da Costa, a former Director of Legislative Affairs at Downing Street, described Grieve’s scheme as “Incredible!” in a lengthy Twitter thread, asking “are they really proposing qualified minority voting?!”
“300 MPs, a minority, even if opposed by a majority, being allowed to dictate next day’s business… rather than all MPs votes being equal 10 [Remainer Tory] MPs are on a pedestal. A single MP, a Green, given more sway as a whole party in own right,” she observed.
“Here you could have a majority against a particular action, but be considered to have lost because 300 were on other side… This is not just novel in the Commons, is there any example anywhere in the world that can serve as a model for minority decision making?”
Johnson, for his part, gave an impression of confidence that the anti-Brexiteers would be defeated in his column, writing: “They won’t stop Brexit. They won’t even succeed in delaying it. But by seeming so blatantly to go against the wishes of the electorate, they will contribute to a very damaging feeling of a gap – and a growing gap – between the public and the political elite.”