Veteran Tory MP set to join 90 opposition MPs in voting against Brexit bill – as senior Labour MP Clive Lewis weighs up whether to rebel

Kenneth Clarke is preparing to line up with around 90 MPs from opposition parties, including Labour rebels, the SNP and Liberal Democrats, to vote against the government’s Brexit bill.

The veteran Conservative delivered an impassioned speech to colleagues about his decision, accusing the Conservative party that he has represented for almost five decades of becoming anti-immigrant.

Clarke told colleagues that even his former colleague Enoch Powell, best known for his infamous Rivers of Blood speech, would be surprised to see what had become of the Tories.

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“If he was here he would probably find it amazing to believe that his party had become Eurosceptic and rather mildly anti-immigrant in a strange way in 2016,” he said. “I’m afraid on that I haven’t followed them and I don’t intend to do so.”

The decision over how to handle the Brexit legislation is also causing angst for Jeremy Corbyn as dozens of Labour politicians prepare to rebel against a three-line whip ordering them to support the triggering of article 50.

Clive Lewis, the shadow business secretary, has said he will vote with the government on Brexit on Wednesday but will not back the two-clause bill next week if Labour fails to secure any amendments to it.

If Labour maintains a three-line whip in that situation he could become the second shadow cabinet member to resign, after Jo Stevens – with speculation also surrounding another frontbencher, Rachael Maskall.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Enoch Powell, shown speaking in 1970, is well known for the Rivers of Blood speech. Photograph: Popperfoto/Getty Images

And in a letter, seen by the Guardian, the shadow Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer, admitted that people have urged him to consider resigning his frontbench post to reflect the 75% remain vote in his London constituency – Holborn and St Pancras.

Sources tell the Guardian that May is planning to publish the government’s Brexit white paper on Thursday. They say the prime minister may make one further concession first to avoid Tory backbenchers lining up with opposition parties to vote for amendments. They suggest May is minded to agree to report back to parliament on the progress on Brexit negotiations four times a year.

The Brexit bill, forced on the government by a supreme court ruling, triggered a passionate hours-long debate in parliament on Tuesday in which MPs from all parties clashed over the question of Britain’s exit from the EU.

In his speech, Clarke, a lifelong Europhile, dismissed the “pathetic” arguments of both the leave and remain campaigns in June’s referendum, citing the promise of £350m for the NHS each week and the threat of a post-Brexit punishment budget as among the “dafter” ideas.

He also mocked the optimism of Brexit supporters, saying: “Apparently you follow the rabbit down the hole and you emerge in a wonderland where suddenly countries around the world are queuing up to give us trading advantages and access to their markets that previously we had never been able to achieve as part of the European Union.

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“Nice men like President Trump and President Erdoğan are just impatient to abandon their normal protectionism and give us access.”

He said there was nothing disloyal about sticking to his principles on the issue of Brexit because supporting European cooperation through the union had been official Conservative policy for half a century.

“I admire my colleagues who can suddenly become enthusiastic Brexiteers, having seen the light on the road to Damascus on the day that the vote was cast,” he said. “I’m afraid that light has been denied me.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Clive Lewis is thought to be considering his position in the shadow cabinet over Corbyn’s three-line whip. Photograph: Sarah Lee/The Guardian

Moreover, Clarke argued that hardcore Tory Eurosceptics would not have abandoned their arguments had they lost the referendum.

The speech, which ended with a round of applause – normally banned inside the Commons’ chamber – from opposition MPs, was followed by similarly ardent interventions from Brexiters including Bill Cash, who called the vote to leave the EU a “peaceful revolution”.

Labour’s Kate Hoey strongly rejected the notion that the referendum vote was anti-immigration, arguing that it was about making the system fairer for those from outside the EU.

The speeches came after Brexit secretary David Davis opened the debate by urging MPs to deliver the will of the people. He said the “point of no return” had already passed, adding that there would be “no attempts to remain inside the EU, no attempts to rejoin it by the back door and no second referendum”.

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Davis said people were watching to see if politicians would keep their word: “Now we must honour our side of the agreement to vote to deliver on the result. We are considering a very simple question: Do we trust the people or not?”

Starmer said Labour would not block the process, but he admitted it had not been an easy decision. “For the Labour party it is a difficult bill. We are a fiercely internationalist party, we are a pro-European party,” the shadow Brexit secretary told the Commons. “But we lost the referendum,” he said, adding that Labour was a party of democrats and had to honour the outcome, however painful that was.

Starmer has also written to his London constituents, who voted overwhelmingly remain, to explain his position.

In the letter, seen by the Guardian, he admitted: “I know that many people have urged me to reflect on the 75% remain vote in Holborn and St Pancras by voting against article 50 and resigning my post in the shadow cabinet,” he wrote, saying he understood the arguments.

But Starmer argued that giving up his shadow cabinet post would stop him questioning the government “relentlessly” from the front bench.

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“It would be [wrong] to walk off the pitch just when we need effective challenge to government. I believe that would be the wrong thing to do,” he said.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Brexit secretary David Davis said the ‘point of no return’ had been passed. Photograph: PA

Starmer and a Labour colleague, Chris Leslie, are pushing for amendments that would make the final vote on Brexit in parliament more meaningful, by ensuring that it comes before the negotiated deal is put to the European parliament.

Some Tory backbenchers are interested in the idea, because they are unhappy with May’s suggestion that the vote will be a choice between accepting the deal or crashing out of the EU on World Trade Organization trading terms.

But sources have told the Guardian that they are unlikely to be able to defeat the government in a vote and instead are pushing for concessions.

It comes as a poll for Open Britain, carried out by YouGov, shows that 51% of people would want negotiations to continue if MPs reject the deal, while only 34% would want the UK to withdraw from the EU with no agreement.

And a survey of MPs by the UK in a Changing Europe suggests big differences in what they want out of the negotiations, with 72% of leavers prioritising immigration control with a much more mixed response from remainers.

