Brexit can and should be stopped if it fails to bring voters the benefits promised to them by leave campaigners, Nick Clegg has argued before the latest round of talks in Brussels.

The former Liberal Democrat leader said MPs were “duty bound” to reject a poor deal, telling BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he believed the UK could instead stay within some limited form of EU membership.



The latest round of Brexit talks begins on Monday, amid expectations that European leaders are unlikely to decide later this month that sufficient progress has been made to move discussions towards a future trading relationship.

Theresa May is expected to use a statement to the House of Commons later on Monday following her Brexit speech in Florence to tell other EU members “the ball is in their court” and she cannot be expected to make fresh concessions, according to reports.

But Clegg, who has written a book on how Brexit could be stopped, told Today that voters who opposed a poor Brexit deal should lobby their MPs to make clear their views.

“In almost exactly a year’s time, there will be an absolute crunch vote on Brexit when David Davis and Theresa May present whatever threadbare deal they’ve managed to cobble together to MPs,” he said.

“At that point, MPs need to decide a simple thing: does what they have before them, presented to them by David Davis and Theresa May, measure up in any respect to the numerous, utopian promises made to their constituents by Brexiteers?



“If they don’t, MPs are duty bound, regardless of whether they are in favour of remain or Brexit, to reject that deal, because it won’t in any way conform to the expectations raised by the Brexiteers in the first place.”

Clegg said this did not mean “overthrowing” the referendum decision. “The electorate ticked a box in favour of Brexit. Brexit isn’t just a word,” he said.

Asked about overstated claims made by the remain side before the referendum, Clegg said: “The other side lost. When you win in a democracy, you have to take responsibility. And you have to take responsibility for delivering the commitments that you’ve made to the British people.

“All I’m saying is that we’ve given the government plenty of time – it’s six months since the article 50 process was triggered, more than a year since the referendum occurred.

“Not only do I think this government clearly doesn’t know what long-term relationship it wants to establish between the EU and the UK, much more importantly than that, I see no prospect at all that any of the numerous commitments made to the British people are actually going to come about.

“On that basis, I think it’s perfectly right that people should say: ‘Well, hang on a minute, we’re not getting what you told us we’re going to get, and on that basis we want to think again.’”

The Scottish National party leader, Nicola Sturgeon, speaking before the party’s conference on Monday, urged Labour and the 13 Scottish Tory MPs to block a hard Brexit.

Speaking on the Today programme, she said: “The arithmetic in the House of Commons now is such that we shouldn’t give up on more sensible outcomes to this process. If the UK is going to leave the EU, then we should remain within the single market and customs union because that is the best way to protect jobs and living standards.

“For that to be deliverable Labour has to get its act together and unequivocally argue for continued membership of the single market. The Scottish Tories could hold the balance of power on this …

“So far since the election, the Scottish Tories haven’t shown any influence or power at all. If they had the gumption they could exercise, if they voted with the SNP and if Labour got its act together, there could be a majority in the House of Commons to stop a hard Brexit. But that is going to take, not just Labour, but the Tories changing the position they are in just now.”

Sturgeon said the case for a second referendum on the terms of Britain’s relationship with the EU would be “irresistible” if the UK crashed out of the bloc with no deal.

On the other side of the debate, May is facing renewed pressure from her more hardline pro-leave MPs to offer nothing extra to the EU in exchange for trade talks.

Bernard Jenkin, a leading pro-Brexit backbencher, told Today that May should take a tougher line with the EU.

He said: “She would be cheered to the echo if she was to say: ‘Look, I’ve had enough of this. We’re going to get ready to leave in 2019, we’re going to spend the money we need to be ready to leave in 2019, and if the European Union wants to come back to the table and talk to us about what kind of relationship they want with us in the long term then we’re ready to talk.’

“They’re just stringing us along, and there comes a point where you’ve got to say: look, if you want to talk, we’ll talk, but otherwise we’re going to get ready to leave.”

Such talk is likely to prompt more concern elsewhere in Europe about the likelihood of a no-deal Brexit.

Reuters cited one unnamed senior EU official as saying the divisions in May’s government seemed to make this even more likely.

“You need to factor in that it’s not a rational process,” they said. “So it’s not unlikely that they again shy away from what are the economic imperatives and we end up cliff-edging by political default.”

