The Liberal Democrat leader, Tim Farron, has said the party would vote against article 50 unless the British people were given a referendum on the final Brexit deal.

The party has only eight MPs but their attempts to derail any article 50 bill are likely to have more success in the House of Lords, where they have more than 100 peers.



“We have said we will vote against article 50 if our red line is not met, and it is a single, simple red line which is that we want to respect the will of the people and that means that they must have their say in a referendum on the terms of the deal,” Farron said.

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“It is the only logical and it is the only democratic option on the table. There will be a referendum at the end of this process so that nobody would have imposed upon them something they didn’t vote for.”

Farron said he respected the result of the June referendum, where 52% voted to leave the EU, but said it “must not now end up with a stitch-up, with a deal being imposed on the British people that absolutely nobody voted for”.

Labour MPs, including Catherine West, David Lammy and Helen Hayes, have also said they would vote against any trigger of article 50, reflecting the views of their constituents.

Hayes told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I had somebody in my surgery last week who was in tears because of Brexit, and I see genuine distress among my constituents about what this path means. I would not be representing them if I voted to trigger article 50 on the basis of no information from the government about the path that they would then take us on.”

The high court ruled last week parliament must be given a say on triggering the two-year process for leaving the EU, which the government had argued it could do using prerogative powers. The government will appeal against the case at the supreme court in early December, but if the ruling is upheld a bill will have to be prepared that must pass both houses.

David Jones MP, minister of state at the Department for Exiting the European Union, said Farron was attempting to subvert democracy. “Parliament voted by a margin of six to one to put the decision on whether to remain in or leave the EU in the hands of the British people,” he said.

“Now, because they didn’t like the first answer, Liberal Democrat and Labour MPs seek to put the question all over again in hope of a different answer. They are attempting to thwart and reverse the decision that was taken on 23 June. Only the Conservatives can be trusted to respect the outcome of the referendum and make a success of Brexit.”