Prime Minister Theresa May is set to warn Leave voters that the political class are more likely to block Brexit than allow a clean, No Deal Brexit to happen.
The Tory leader is expected to issue the threat in a set-piece speech to factory workers on January 14th in a last-ditch effort to cajole Brexit supporters in the House of Commons into backing her own exit deal, which has been excoriated as “the worst deal in history” by Leavers and Remainers alike.
“As we have seen over the last few weeks, there are some in Westminster who would wish to delay or even stop Brexit and who will use every device available to them to do so,” she will say, according to a transcript seen by the BBC.
“I ask MPs to consider the consequences of their actions on the faith of the British people in our democracy,” she will continue.
“Imagine if an anti-devolution House of Commons had said to the people of Scotland or Wales that despite voting in favour of a devolved legislature, Parliament knew better and would overrule them. Or else force them to vote again.
“What if we found ourselves in a situation where Parliament tried to take the UK out of the EU in opposition to a Remain vote?
“People’s faith in the democratic process and their politicians would suffer catastrophic harm. We all have a duty to implement the result of the referendum.”
The Welsh devolution referendum was decided by a margin of less than 1% on a 50% turnout and nobody questioned the result of that – so why have politicians on the losing side decided to treat the EU referendum as a special case? pic.twitter.com/8flCFveihD
— Change Britain (@Change_Britain) January 14, 2019
The Prime Minister if expected to offer the example of the 1997 on Welsh devolution — which established a local assembly and executive for Wales roughly analogous to a U.S. state government — which passed a razor-thin margin of 50.3 percent, on a low turnout of 50.2 percent.
“That result was accepted by both sides and the popular legitimacy of that institution has never seriously been questioned,” Mrs May will say.
“Parliament understood this fact when it voted overwhelmingly to trigger Article 50. And both major parties did so too when they stood on election manifestos in 2017 that pledged to honour the result of the referendum.”
The so-called “meaningful vote” on the Prime Minister’s deal with the EU on January 15th.
It would not, in fact, settle the question of Britain’s future relationship with the bloc, but only rubber stamp the massive “divorce bill” she has agreed to pay it, along with a roughly two-year-long “transition” period in which Britain would effectively remain an EU member without but without any representation in the EU’s institutions which negotiations continue — with a deeply contentious “backstop” arrangement to come into force if it expires before a final deal is agreed.
Govt Whistleblower: UK Prepared for ‘No Deal’ Brexit, Scare Stories ‘Absolutely Untrue’ https://t.co/FHVSSJBnua
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) December 29, 2018
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