Express & Star comment: Now is the time to call rebels’ bluff
Does anybody have a clue what is going on with the Brexit negotiations?
Ordinary members of the public have long since given up trying to understand the machinations of the Government and the politicking of the opposition parties with regards to our departure from the EU.
This week’s big votes are ostensibly about whether the House of Commons – that well known barometer of public opinion, decorum, principle and wisdom – should have the right to pull the rug from under Britain’s negotiating team in Brussels.
It appears that if our esteemed MPs do not like the final Brexit deal, they want the power to reject it and take affairs into their own hands.
You do not need to be a top level political analyst to see the lunacy of taking this path.
Not only does it weaken the position of our negotiating team significantly, it also renders their efforts worthless as MPs would undoubtedly reject any deal that did not tie Britain to the EU in the long term.
This is the latest attempt to nullify the Brexit vote that so many of our elected politicians – and unelected peers – find so distasteful.
This newspaper has urged Theresa May on many occasions to grasp the nettle, assert her authority and face down the has-beens and never will-bes that appear to be holding her to ransom.
Delivering Brexit is a Conservative vote winner – perhaps the only Conservative vote winner – in the next general election.
Mrs May must see that procrastination and delay do nothing but play into the hands of her opponents whether they come from the ranks of Labour MPs or those sitting around her on the Tory benches.
Instead of making concessions and back-door deals with her so-called rebels, she should call their bluff and ask them whether they really want to usher Jeremy Corbyn into the door of Number 10.
One thing MPs love to preserve more than anything else is their own skins.
And it should be very clear to them all what is required.
With the mood of an impatient Brexit-voting majority deteriorating by the day, few of these Tory no-marks would be likely to survive another trip to the polls.
