Eddie Hughes MP: Politicians deserve to be treated with contempt if Brexit fails

Tory MP Eddie Hughes warned that people were becoming 'increasingly frustrated' by the 'we know best' attitude of some politicians who appear determined to derail the UK's departure from the EU.

The pro-Brexit MP for Walsall North also hit out at former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown, describing his plans for a second EU referendum as an attempt to 'stir up attention'.

Mr Hughes said: "I sincerely hope that if anything goes wrong with Brexit, that people realise they were let down by politicians who did not try hard enough to deliver what they were promised.

"If that happens people will be within their rights to treat politicians with the contempt that they deserve.

"At the moment I see a massive sense of democratic deficit, because the public must be looking at us and wondering what is going on.

"It is as if there is an attitude that now the General Election is over – during which time both major parties said they would deliver Brexit – the public aren't looking anymore.

"Some MPs think they can go back to the approach of 'we know best'. It is incredibly frustrating for people.

"We could spend our whole lives in a position of perpetual referendum. In actual fact the best thing for the country would be to deliver the Brexit bill, before focusing on our position in the new world."

In a speech at the launch of his new book in the Black Country last week, Mr Brown said he could start campaigning for a second EU referendum next summer.

He suggested that by that point many people who voted to leave the EU would realise they had made a mistake.

Mr Hughes said: "He wants to sell what I imagine won't be a particularly hot selling book, so he wants to stir up attention.

"It seems ridiculous that a failed Prime Minister turns up in the Black Country where people voted for Brexit, telling them they don't know what they're talking about and that they made a mistake."