Senior Tory says in leaked email that most politicians ‘paid lip service to supposedly democratic nature of the exercise’

Ken Clarke has written to constituents who have contacted him with concerns about Britain’s vote to leave the European Union to reassure them: “The referendum is not binding.”

In an email leaked to the Guardian, the Conservative grandee bemoaned the fact that most politicians “paid lip service to the supposedly democratic nature of the exercise”.

He said pro-European politicians should use opportunities in parliament to have a say over Brexit. “I think that MPs should vote according to their judgment of the national interest and the interest of their constituents,” he wrote.

The referendum was not an “instruction to any MP on how to vote” on the practical consequences around the economy, trade, migration or other arrangements that could emerge in Brexit negotiations, he said.

Instead, the MP told a resident in Rushcliffe, he would do his best “to contribute to mitigating the disaster that this decision on 23 June might otherwise cause”.

Clarke, who declined to comment on the contents of the email but did not deny he had written it, also wrote that he would be likely to vote against any move to trigger article 50, the mechanism that would begin the process of the UK leaving the EU.

However, he is unlikely to get the opportunity to do so after Downing Street said the government would not be offering MPs or peers a vote on the issue. The prime minister’s official spokeswoman was responding to a House of Lords constitution committee warning that it would be “constitutionally inappropriate” for Theresa May to trigger article 50 without consulting parliament.



The committee, chaired by the Conservative peer and former trade secretary Ian Lang, said it would set a “disturbing precedent” for May to act without explicit approval from MPs and lords.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ken Clarke (L) opposes triggering article 50, which Theresa May has said she will do without consulting parliament. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

But Downing Street dismissed the report, saying the government “takes a different view”, and pointing out that both the Commons and Lords voted in favour of the referendum, which put the decision about EU membership into the hands of the public.



In his message, Clarke described himself as being in the “rather exceptional position” of being a long time Europhile who had opposed the referendum and whose constituents had voted 60/40 in favour of remaining.



Although he said he would like to oppose article 50, he admitted: “There may be only a few eccentrics in the House of Commons in that lobby.”

However, Clarke, who said the constituent was one of hundreds who had written to him with concerns about Brexit, suggested MPs could cause more trouble down the line.

“More significantly, none of the Brexiteers at the moment have any clear idea of what they want to do next by way of actual change to our economy, trade, migration and other arrangements with the EU. A flood of legislation and regulations will probably have to be put before parliament over the next few years, implementing changes,” he wrote.

Andrew Bridgen, a Conservative MP whoseNorth West Leicestershire constituency is near Clarke’s Rushcliffe seat, said it was “disappointing that Ken Clarke, a great parliamentarian and someone who I thought believes in real democracy could possibly say such things.

”The support he has locally in Rushcliffe delivered the only convincing remain vote in the whole of the east Midlands and as an east Midlands MP he should take that really on board. There is no need for a parliamentary vote. We’ve all had a vote. I had a vote and Ken had a vote. And I am disappointed in those who think some people’s votes are worth more than others. Though I do have the have the highest respect for Ken Clarke, who has been a consistent Europhile and consistently wrong.”

PM should seek parliamentary approval over article 50, says Lords committee Read more

Clarke also called the referendum campaign “quite nasty and not very informative particularly on the leave side but sometimes on the remain side in the national reports in the media”.

It is not the first time that Clarke has made controversial comments. During the short-lived Tory leadership contest he was caught on camera describing May as a “bloody difficult woman” and predicting that Michael Gove would go to war with three countries at once as prime minister.

The email was leaked at a time when there is disagreement between the high-profile groups that have grown out of the remain and leave campaigns.

Vote Leave’s successor, Change Britain, has been criticised after it included a clip of a pro-EU Labour MP on its Facebook page, suggesting he might support the group. The video shows Chuka Umunna welcoming the “overall tone” of an article written in the Sun on Sunday by the high-profile out campaigner Gisela Stuart, and saying it was important to bring people together.

But those working with Umunna said the video was cut short, and that he went on to say: “That doesn’t mean that all these promises that were made during the referendum campaign by the leave campaign ... should be just discarded and forgotten.”

A source from Vote Leave Watch, a group that Umunna chairs, said: “Calling Chuka a supporter of Change Britain is like calling Boris Johnson a campaigner for honesty in politics.

“Change Britain can have their fun, but Chuka and Vote Leave Watch will continue to be relentless in holding them to account for their broken promise to spend £350m more a week on the NHS.”



