Whatever their party, whatever their Brexit stance, MPs must vote with their conscience today and stop no-deal
I don’t have enough fingers to count the things Nick Boles and I disagree on. The independent MP for Grantham and Stamford only recently resigned the Conservative whip over the party’s refusal to compromise over Brexit. But I can only concur with his clear explanation of the crisis within his former party: “Johnson is truly Britain’s Trump. There is no institution, no relationship and no international commitment that he is not willing to sacrifice to achieve a no-deal Brexit. He is turning the Conservative and Unionist party into the English National Party. He must be stopped.”
This is what Conservatives rebels are now facing up to: the party of conservatism and traditionalism, the self-styled party of business and status quo, has been taken over by the British wing of the Trump-and-friends franchise. A grumbling Euroscepticism, nurtured over decades, has festered into a ravaging virus and infected the entire body. It is no doubt difficult to recognise fundamentalist demagoguery when it shows up inside your own party, but recognise it they must. This morning, moderate Conservative MP Justine Greening, widely respected across parliament, looked this reality in the eye and took the honourable decision to stand down at the next election, citing “concerns about the Conservative party becoming the Brexit party”.
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