Top Tory Brexiteer Michael Gove has warned the Parliament against rejecting Prime Minister Theresa May’s deal to leave the European Union (EU) because doing so would increase the possibility of a new referendum.
Speaking to BBC on Sunday, the UK environment secretary staged an passionate defense of May’s controversial Brexit deal with the EU and warned Conservative members of parliament (MPs) that a rebellion against the PM would lead to chaos.
“There is a real risk if we don’t vote for this deal that there may be a majority in the House of Commons for a second referendum,” he said.
British voters participating in the June 2016 EU referendum voted 52 percent to 48 percent in favor of ending the country’s decades-long membership in the 28-member bloc.
The opponents of the divorce argue that after more than two years, many voters have become aware of Brexit’s effects on the country’s economy and would vote against it should they get another chance.
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Gove argued that a second Brexit would imply that the voters were “too thick” to make decisions back then and “too dim” to know what they were voting about.
He also claimed that a second vote would only make a stronger case for Brexit as more people would vote to support it.
“But the very act of calling a second referendum I believe would damage faith in democracy and rip apart the social fabric of the country,” he added.
In his interview, Gove went after the rebelling Tories.
He publicly rebuked Secretary of Exchequer Philip Hammond for saying Britain will be worse off under all Brexit scenarios.
He blasted Hammond for claiming that all Brexit outcomes would leave Britons poorer than if they stayed in the EU.
May faces the daunting task of gaining the approval of the parliament for a deal that has even put her own cabinet in disarray.
This is while the proposed deal has already been endorsed by the leaders of all 27 EU countries and is expected to get similarly overwhelming support at the European Parliament when it comes up for vote.
The EU made it clear after an endorsement ceremony in Brussels last month that renegotiation was simply not an option should May fail to get a ‘yes’ vote from British lawmakers.
So far, eight of May’s ministers have handed in their resignations in protest to the deal.
Desperate to salvage the agreement, May has agreed to a televised debate with chief opposition leader, Jeremy Corbyn, on December 9, two days before the critical vote.