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Parliament should get Theresa May “off the hook” of her divided Cabinet by voting decisively to stay in the customs union, Father of the House Kenneth Clarke says today.

In an interview with the Evening Standard, the Tory elder statesman said he has tested “the mood of the House” and believes there is a big majority against leaving the barrier-free EU trade bloc.

“I actually think that given that the Government is so divided on its negotiating objectives it could get them off the hook to have Parliament laying down a clear objective,” he said.

Mr Clarke urged MPs to vote with their consciences when an amendment on the bloc is put to a vote, probably in May. He mocked claims by Brexiteers that the 2016 referendum meant we should leave. “The idea that ‘our masters the people’ ordered us to leave the customs union … I don’t quite see how anybody can give that with a straight face,” he said. “The leading people on the Leave side, particularly Boris Johnson, [went] out of their way to say our trading relationships with the Continent would remain quite unchanged.”

Mr Clarke, first elected in 1970, became the longest-serving MP at last year’s general election, beating Labour’s Dennis Skinner by 25 minutes.

The 77-year-old former chancellor is one of the most active MPs in debates and is busy behind the scenes, revealing in an aside he planned to visit Ireland just to check for himself on premier Leo Varadkar’s negotiating position.

He said the current Parliament was unique “because nobody has got a clue what is going to happen in the next month, six months or 12 months”.

The Prime Minister was facing “the worst combination of problems that any prime minister has taken on in my political lifetime” and the Government was “in the weakest political position in Parliament of almost any government I have seen”. Mrs May had become “the indispensable leader of the [Tory] party” because she alone could keep both sides together.

He warned that MPs must be prepared to put country before party or career in the coming months. “There will be key moments … when Conservative MPs are all going to ask themselves ‘are they comfortable with their conscience?’”

He warned of tough decisions to protect the public finances, saying Tories should be prepared to vote for tax rises to improve the NHS and social care, including hikes for middle-earners and the elderly — traditional target voters.

Pensioners should lose their exemption on paying national insurance, he said. “You get your state pension on top of your pay, so the least you can do is pay the same tax on your salary as your colleagues do.” Richer pensioners should be stripped of free bus passes and winter fuel allowance. Challenging modern “Thatcherites”, he said it was a “kind of child-like attitude” that had grown over the past 20 years to think taxes were only there to be cut.

“It is a populist mistake to slip into the belief that you can get all the money you want from wealthy foreigners and big international companies and just the super-rich,” he said. “I’m afraid people who have normal income, not the poor, have to expect to contribute to the cost of the public services that they and their families need.”

Mr Clarke backed Speaker John Bercow against “the usual suspects” threatening to oust him in a bullying row.

“He is accused of liking the sound of his own voice — but that’s true of nine out of 10 members of the House of Commons,” he said.

“Bercow keeps the House of Commons relevant, up to speed, gives all the time that legitimately Members want to try to influence what the Government is doing now. That would annoy any government. If the Speaker is not upsetting the Government, [he is] probably not a very good Speaker.”