They have perverted the concept of parliamentary sovereignty to legitimise aristocratic rule by MPs

There was a time when Eurosceptics thought that they were the new Roundheads, fighting to return power to Parliament, pitted in combat against the Remainers, a new generation of Euro-Cavaliers committed to the divine right of the EU to rule over us. It was a compelling tale, so it’s no wonder that the more extreme Remainers are seeking to appropriate a warped version of it for themselves. Their real aim is to cancel Brexit, and they’ve found a brilliant new way of dressing up their power grab in pseudo-democratic garb.

Remainer MPs, we are told, are the true friends of Parliament; Brexiteers are on the side of the bullying executive; and the courts have stepped in to complete the 1611 Case of Proclamations that limited the Royal prerogative. So what’s wrong with the Eurosceptics? Didn’t they spend years demanding greater parliamentary sovereignty? Why, then, are they so angry at John Bercow for enhancing MPs’ role? Why don’t they support the Supreme Court’s revolutionary reinterpretation of the Bill of Rights?

Read Allister Heath's latest column on telegraph.co.uk every Wednesday night from 9.30pm

It’s a trap. The Remainers are proposing a new doctrine: a perversion of the old idea of parliamentary sovereignty and its replacement by a toxic concept which posits that MPs should have almost unlimited power. Instead of a representative democracy, Remainers want an elected oligarchy, a parliamentocracy, with MPs free to do whatever they wish once elected, with zero accountability. It would be like creating a hybrid between Lords and Commons, with MPs as heroic rebels, defying the bigoted voters, organising themselves into ever-shifting alliances, with manifestos merely a sick joke.