Fall Out: A Year of Political Mayhem

by Tim Shipman

Nick Clegg, McGrory’s old boss, became the Liberal Democrat frontbench spokesman on Europe and began to demand single market membership. ‘He genuinely thinks that has been the most catastrophic decision that has been taken in his lifetime,’ a friend of Clegg said. By November, there was talk of the former Labour cabinet ministers Alan Milburn, John Hutton and Douglas Alexander, backed up by funding from insurance millionaire Sir Clive Cowdery, to push for a second referendum with the hope of overturning Brexit if public opinion cooled. Open Britain began to take a tougher line. In December another ghost of battles past resurfaced. Stephen Dorrell, the former Tory health secretary, became chairman of the European Movement with the explicit intention of blocking Brexit. ‘Brexit is a mistake and we shall seek to build support for that point of view,’ he said. ‘The government has a mandate but I don’t think the mandate it has reflects this country’s interests, so I will seek to defeat it.’ The media was most interested in the activities of Tony Blair, who decided to use Brexit to effect his re-entry into domestic politics.