John Connolly John Connolly

Dominic Grieve’s strategy for a second referendum

The former Tory MP Dominic Grieve may have voted against the parliamentary recess for Conservative party conference, but that certainly hasn’t kept him away from the action this week. The now independent MP showed up in Manchester yesterday, and this afternoon attended a ‘Conservatives for a People’s Vote’ event at the aptly named (for a man with few allies inside the hall) ‘Friends House’ outside the conference area.

As expected, the MP first used his platform to launch attacks on Boris Johnson’s government. Grieve said reports that he and his Remain allies had sought help from the French to draft the Benn bill were a serious piece of ‘defamation’ and that Number 10 had overseen a ‘culture war’ and ‘corruption of our political system’.

More interesting though were his remarks on the Remain alliance’s strategy over the next three weeks. Grieve began by saying the government’s hints that there may be a loophole in the Benn Act – which will attempt to force the PM to ask for a Brexit extension – were ‘disinformation’, which is being spread to ‘destabilise’ and foment ‘disharmony’ among the anti-no deal coalition.

Instead of reacting, he suggested that his colleagues should simply sit tight and let the Benn Act take its course. He argued that suggestions that there is a way round the bill are ‘farfetched’ and even if Boris Johnson resigned rather than sent a letter to the EU, his successor would simply have to deliver it instead, as ‘the law of the land requires the letter to be written.’

Grieve seemed less confident though about what will happen if an extension is agreed with the EU, which puts off the next Brexit deadline until January. He

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