Esther McVey, who is hoping to take over as the next Prime Minister, criticised Remain backing MPs for halting Brexit. The leadership candidate, and Tory MP for Tatton, has insisted the UK will be leaving the European Union by the end of October with or without a deal, if she takes over as Conservative Party leader. Last week, Dominic Raab sparked controversy after he refused to rule out proroguing Parliament, to ensure Brexit is delivered by the end of October.
Asked about the proroguing of Parliament, on Good Morning Britain, Ms McVey said: “When we talked about proroguing, what seemed most hypocritical to me is that people, who didn’t want the will of the people to go through, that democratic referendum, whether that was Yvette Cooper or Oliver Letwin. They did everything they could, they ripped up the rulebook to defy what people wanted.
“I am just wanting to enable the vote of the people to go through.
“I have said that I will use every tool in the armoury, but proroguing is not what you would choose to do, I am saying you would use every tool in your armoury to deliver that vote for the people.”
Last week, Ms McVey suggested she too may seek to bypass Parliament if elected Prime Minister and not take any withdrawal deal back to the Commons to prevent MPs from amending the proposal.
But, responding to the idea of Parliament being prorogued to ensure Britain leaves the European Union without a Brexit deal at the end of October, Speaker John Bercow insisted it was “not going to happen”.
Speaking in the Commons, Mr Bercow said: “As we all know because I have said it several times and I think the honourable gentleman believes this, is that Parliament will not be evacuated from the centre stage of the decision making process on this important matter.
“That is simply not going to happen. It’s is just so blindingly obvious that it almost doesn’t need to be stated, but apparently, it does and therefore I have done.”
The House of Commons is due to break for summer recess in July, Mr Raab suggested he would be willing to block MPs returning to Westminster in order to deliver on the 2016 EU referendum result.
Nominations for the Conservative Party candidates to take over from Prime Minister Theresa May will open on Monday at 10am and close at 5pm.
Each Conservative Party candidate will need at least eight nominations from their Tory colleagues to move forward in the leadership race.
The full list of final candidates for the leadership will be announced by the 1922 Committee at 5.30pm.
Previously Conservative candidates only needed two nominations for the first round, but the rules were changed earlier this month to speed up the contest.