Vince Cable, Liz Saville-Roberts, Ian Blackford and Caroline Lucas have been meeting the Prime Minister this evening. And they went in with intent to argue with her pretty robustly.
They basically said that Parliament should sit in continuous session until they can sort this out. MPs would not be bullied into making a choice between a disaster and a catastrophe.
And they added that they would bring forward a vote to revoke Article 50 “as a last resort”.
They issued a joint statement before going in to No 10.
The Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru, the SNP and the Green Party have been working together and meeting regularly for the past two years since the EU referendum.
“We agree that the House of Commons must formulate a plan that will give the EU Council the confidence to agree a longer extension beyond 30th June, so that by the end of next week legislation can be in place to prevent a No Deal exit.
“Parliament should now sit in continuous session until it can reach a decision and set out a clear plan.
“We will be pushing for the House of Commons to support a referendum on remaining in the EU, others will put forward their own positions. If the Commons cannot agree, as a last resort we would be prepared to take steps to secure a parliamentary vote on the revocation of Article 50.
“The Prime Minister must not be allowed to bully MPs into a choice between her bad deal and no deal. That would make Brexit a choice between disaster and catastrophe, and that would be a failure of truly historic proportions.
“The UK – and all of its people and nations – deserve better.”
More opposition in this lot than in Jeremy Corbyn’s entire front bench.
4 Comments
This is good. Exactly the right line, and it is impressive to see we are working across party lines like this. I’m a wee bit surprised the TIGs were not included in this, but whatever.
I make this a block of 51 MPs (62 if the TIGs join). In the current situation, that’s a number that can’t be ignored.
Good point, Tony. Though they were at the meeting – see next post. Jezza threw a strop and legged it cos Chuka was there.
Not that she listened this time, any more than before. Not sure why she bothered to invite them.
Fine words but, as far as their effect went, “Throwing snowballs into Hell” comes to mind…