Calls to reinstate the 21 MPs sacked last year for not supporting the Withdrawal Agreement have been sounded on social media, with people arguing that the current Brexit Bill is an admission that they were right.
Former chancellors, Winston Churchill’s grandson and one of the longest-serving MPs were all dismissed from the party last year for rebelling against the government.
The 21 Conservative MPs – many of them decades-long Tory loyalists – helped inflict defeat on Boris Johnson in his first major vote since becoming prime minister, winning a vote to override a Commons rule that says only the government can propose new laws.
They all had the Tory whip removed, meaning they had been sacked from the Conservatives and could not stand for the party at the next general election.
But the latest Brexit Bill – which will give the government the power to override Withdrawal Agreement – is seen by some as an admission that the rebels were right.
Several MPs have spoken out on the issue, although as Simon Hoare pointed out, they would have had to back it in order to stand for election as a Tory.
David Schneider pointed out the irony of this, which seems to encapsulate Britain in 2020:
– Kenneth Clarke
– Philip Hammond
– David Gauke
– Greg Clark
– Sir Oliver Letwin
– Justine Greening
– Dominic Grieve
– Rory Stewart
– Sir Nicholas Soames
– Alistair Burt
– Sam Gyimah
– Stephen Hammond
– Guto Bebb
– Richard Benyon
– Steve Brine
– Richard Harrington
– Margot James
– Anne Milton
– Caroline Nokes
– Antoinette Sandbach
– Edward Vaizey
Related: Full list of MPs who voted to give controversial Brexit Bill a safe passage through parliament
