MP makes call for fresh Brexit vote as she declares Chequers deal ‘dead’
Conservative MP Heidi Allen. - Credit: Archant
South Cambridgeshire MP Heidi Allen has added her voice to calls for a fresh Brexit referendum in the event that parliament fails to back the deal being sought by the prime minister.
Sir John Major. - Credit: Archant
Ms Allen, whose constituency includes Papworth in Huntingdonshire, said there would be “no alternative” if the House of Commons rejected Theresa May’s Chequers deal, or no deal was reached with the European Union.
Speaking to Radio 4’s Today programme on Saturday, Ms Allen said, with the Chequers proposals “dead” and the threat to jobs from crashing out of the EU without a deal, the decision had to be thrown back to the public.
She said Boris Johnson and other Conservative MPs were to blame for killing off Mrs May’s Chequers plan.
“They have behaved unacceptably through this and have completely tied her hands,” she said. “It is they who have made Chequers dead.”
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She added: “That being the case, then I think that it is the end of the road, which is very disappointing and for me leaves us with no alternative.
“Should we come to that and no deal ... then we need to go back to the public to decide what they want us to do next.”
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Ms Allen said the option of staying in the EU under existing terms would have to be on the ballot paper.
She told BBC Radio 4 that she would still support in principle an “11th hour” deal hammered out by the prime minister but that it was now clear many in her party would not.
Anna Soubry, Justine Greening and Sarah Wollaston are among other Conservative MPs who have supported a further referendum.
Ms Allen’s comments came as former prime minister and Huntingdon MP, Sir John Major, restated his belief that the public should be given another chance to have their say in a Brexit referendum.
Sir John also hit out at Conservative MPs who were publicly attacking Mrs May, calling their criticisms “lurid”.
