Changing the PM would bring ‘carnage’ says Sir Alan Duncan MP at the Rutland Biz Club
Plans by Tory plotters to force a leadership challenge over Brexit would bring ‘absolute carnage and division’, according to Sir Alan Duncan MP, speaking at the Rutland Biz Club on Friday 22nd March 2019.
A record number of attendees also heard Sir Alan lay the blame for the Brexit chaos firmly at the feet of the European Research Group (ERG) led by MP, Jacob Rees-Mogg.
Sir Alan said: “It would be absolute carnage to have a leadership election, it would be divisive, and Brexit would not be resolved – it would be political meltdown and beyond idiocy to change the PM.”
Sir Alan said that as a Minister he has voted on every occasion to deliver the UK’s departure from the EU by backing Theresa May’s Brexit deal, while the ultra-leavers, Mogg, Boris and Bridgen voted on every occasion against it.
He said: “We are surrounded on our own back benches by obsessives who are destroying the party, the country and Brexit. It is unacceptable that they are behaving in this way. If we don’t deliver, we will see the disintegration of this government and there will be consequences for years, if not decades to come.”
Sir Alan praised the Prime Minister for her fortitude and duty. “Theresa May might not be exciting, but she is rational, showing fortitude and is dutiful and will honour the referendum by leaving in an orderly fashion which means having a deal.”
According to Sir Alan, a no deal Brexit would be the ‘Corn Laws with knobs on’ but ‘much, much worse’, with those who say ‘just leave’ guilty of the most ‘colossal folly.’
He said: “This is my plea; we must honour the referendum by voting for the PM’s deal. If we don’t, all bets are off and you will see not see politics in an orderly way for many years to come. It will see the disintegration that underpins our politics. We are in the last chance saloon. Support the PM or we are sunk.”
Biz Club President Geoffrey Pointon said: “The last time Sir Alan spoke at the Biz Club was in 2014, so it is very welcome that he agreed to speak to us again at such a pivotal moment in politics. Over 90 people attended which demonstrates the interest to hear his views on Brexit.”
The Biz Club meets on the third Friday of each month for a lunch at The Falcon Hotel in Uppingham, with a visiting speaker to encourage enterprise and stimulate dialogue between politicians and business people. For more information visit www.thebizclub.co.uk
