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News presenter suggests Parliament should admit Brexit is a bad idea and reverse it

Adam Boulton appears on Sky News with Conservative MP Bim Afolami and Labour MP Jo Stevens. Photograph: Sky. Archant

A news presenter has asked why the current cohort of MPs don’t “club together” and admit that Brexit was a mistake and work to reversing the decision.

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In an interview between Conservative MP Bim Afolami and Labour MP Jo Stevens, Sky News presenter Adam Boulton made the suggestion as the pair argued about the merits of accepting the “will of the people”.

Boulton said: “We know a majority of all MPs think that leaving the EU is a bad idea for the country. Wouldn’t actually the best thing be for you two to club together and actually say ‘look this is a mistake, we’ve looked into it, and now we as Parliament are going to reverse it’”.

During the 8-minute interview Jo Stevens, a Labour MP that voted against the triggering of Article 50, also left Tory MP Bim Afolami lost for words as she criticised Theresa May’s handling of Brexit and set out what happens next.

She said: “If she loses her deal and she hasn’t got a Plan B, which clearly she hasn’t as she would be telling us about it, then there has to be change.

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So she either loses a vote of no confidence in the government and we have an election, or something else happens that the European Union would consider an extension to Article 50. And also there would be the possibility that we would revoke Article 50, which seems the most sensible thing of all because this is a total mess and she has wasted nearly 3 years on this and she has achieved nothing.”

Afolami, however, continued to parrot the government’s lines on Brexit. He argued that rescinding Article 50 would spark a breakdown in trust between the people and MPs.

He said: “Very few people did vote against Article 50. Parliament has consistently said by big majorities that it is going to implement Brexit.

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“I worry deeply about what happens to the trust between elected representatives and the people if Parliament says ‘actually we find this really tricky, we’re not going to do it’.”

He added: “If you reject this deal in front of us, you are basically saying to your voters and the country you prefer no deal to this Brexit deal.”