A group of Liberal Democrat councillors have claimed Lichfield’s Conservative MP Michael Fabricant is being hypocritical in his views over Brexit.
Michael Fabricant recently told Remainers to “bottle up their spite” and allow the democratic decision to leave the European Union to take place.
But now the group of Lichfield councillors have hit back, claiming the election of the new Prime Minister shows that democracy isn’t being respected across the board.
In an open letter, Cllrs Hugh Ashton, Paul McDermott, Christine Rapley, Paul Ray and John Smith said: “The recent public pronouncements of Mr Fabricant and his enthusiasm for a move that is almost universally predicted to cause serious damage to individuals, society, and to the Union itself, give us serious pause for thought as to his continued suitability as a Member of Parliament.
“The hypocrisy of the call to respect democracy has become apparent, with members of Mr Fabricant’s party alone having been responsible for selecting Boris Johnson as Prime Minister, and more than 99 percent of the population excluded from voting.
“Is this the ‘sovereignty’ and ‘taking back control’ that Mr Fabricant and his friends have been bleating about for the past few years?
“If by his recent pronouncement where he claims that Mr Johnson ‘will deliver what this country needs with style and panache’ Mr Fabricant means a blatant disregard for the truth and for facts, endless promises which remain unfulfilled, and which demonstrate a clear manifestation of style over substance, then we must agree with him.
“However, we do not agree with him that this is what the country needs.
“Mr Johnson’s personal life and his employment history are matters of public record. Enough has been written about them already. We can only say that we would not trust a man with such a record with a position of responsibility.
“That Mr Fabricant can do so, and enthusiastically endorse Mr Johnson, surely makes us question his judgement on such matters.”
Concerns over a no-deal Brexit have seen the pound drop – and the Liberal Democrat councillors believe the warnings about the impact of leaving the European Union cannot continue to be ignored by the city’s MP.
“Even Michael Fabricant’s ideological colleague Jacob Rees-Mogg has admitted that a downturn will occur, but breezily reassures us that this recession will last a few decades at most,” they said.
“Most of those baying for a swift Brexit seem unable or unwilling to accept the unpleasant reality that a no-deal Brexit will result in many years of negotiation, while the UK remains in an unrepresented powerless limbo, which cannot be eliminated by hysterical cheerleading that references days of past glory.
“We have yet to hear a single convincing argument from Mr Fabricant as to why the UK should leave the European Union.
“Even before Brexit, the mere threat of leaving the EU has caused the pound to lose 20 percent or more of its value since the referendum, £1trillion worth of investment to move out of the UK into the EU, and hundreds of thousands of jobs lost.
“It is hard to see when and where we will see the post-Brexit ‘sunny uplands’ that were promised to us by Mr Johnson and his fellow-travellers on their path to the cliff edge.
“The 2016 referendum was an advisory, not mandatory, referendum and the terms of leaving the EU were not clearly spelled out. The margin of victory was such that the Leave campaign itself would have called for a rematch had the voting patterns been reversed.
“No doubt we will hear the tired old tropes about democracy and the will of the people, while ignoring the facts that many of the people who voted to leave the EU in 2016 have since died, and over 80 percent of new voters – who will be most affected by the UK’s leaving the EU – wish to remain.
“Additionally, a substantial proportion of those who voted to leave three years ago now feel deceived or misled by the fanciful promises of the Leave campaign.”
