This week could well decide the future of our country, our democracy and indeed whether Theresa May survives as our Prime Minister. The stakes have never been higher.
MPs will vote on a series of blatant attempts by the unelected House of Lords to wreck Brexit.
Sure, they have dressed it up with all manner of fancy parliamentary jargon, but when it comes down to it, the motives of those behind this are obvious and indeed self-declared.
This week could well decide the future of our country, our democracy and indeed whether Theresa May survives as our Prime Minister. Pictured: Theresa May with Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel
A group of unaccountable pro-Remain members of the Lords, aided and abetted by a few Tory rebels in the Lords and Commons, want to reverse or sabotage what more than 17 million Britons voted for in the 2016 referendum: to take back control of our laws, our money and our borders.
Being in the EU is like pregnancy; you are either pregnant or you are not. There is no ‘hard’ or ‘soft’ Brexit, only what the people voted for or Britain remaining under the EU’s control while pretending we’ve left.
Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party can always be relied on to use any excuse to try to damage the Government and our country. What worries me more is what is happening within the Tory Party.
A small hard core of anti-Brexit Conservative MPs seem intent on supporting opportunistic Opposition attempts to back the Lords plot to frustrate the referendum result and destroy Brexit.
Both Labour and Conservative MPs stood for election only 12 months ago on manifestos which clearly stated they would respect and deliver on the referendum mandate to leave the EU. Therefore I believe any Conservative MP who votes against the Government next week should lose the whip, which would effectively bar them from standing at the next election for our party.
But I regret to say I think Mrs May’s evident and repeated lack of enthusiasm for Brexit has only served to embolden both the EU and some of our own MPs to push her and the Government away from the destination decreed by the democratic will of the British people.
From the way that Brexit Secretary David Davis (pictured) had to threaten to resign before the PM agreed to set a deadline for the so-called ‘backstop’ agreement, it seems at times she can barely bring herself to support a genuine Brexit
From the way that Brexit Secretary David Davis had to threaten to resign before the PM agreed to set a deadline for the so-called ‘backstop’ agreement, it seems at times she can barely bring herself to support a genuine Brexit.
I was present a few days ago when Boris Johnson addressed Conservative MPs in private, recalling William Hague’s words of a few years ago, when he said we should be ‘in Europe but not run by Europe’. Boris warned that after Brexit we could be ‘out of the EU but still ruled by it’, the worst of all worlds. He didn’t blame Mrs May directly. He didn’t need to.
Similarly, many Tories will agree with his comment in a leaked speech about how Trump-style straight-talking would be a far better way of getting concessions from Brussels than handing over negotiations to mealy-mouthed mandarins who will not be the ones to pay the political costs of their sell-out.
I, like many Conservative MPs, share Mr Johnson’s fear that we are in danger of losing Brexit altogether through a lethal combination of a lack of strong leadership and disloyalty to our manifesto pledge.
It cannot go on. The PM needs to take back control of our party so we can take back control of our country.
This week everyone will see if Brexit really still means Brexit.