Yahoo News Brexit deal news: Furious MPs condemn Theresa May for portraying them as 'enemy of the people'
Furious MPs condemned Theresa May today for portraying them as the “enemy of the people” when some of them are already receiving death threats.
They accused her of seeking to “blackmail” MPs into supporting her Brexit deal with her address to the nation from Downing Street in which she sought to put herself on the side of the public and seemingly against Parliament.
“Democracy loses when a Prime Minister who set herself against the House of Commons and then blames MPs for doing their job,” former Tory universities minister Sam Gyimah told BBC Radio 4’s Today.
“This is particularly worrying given she knows MPs are receiving hate mail in their inboxes. Some MPs are receiving death threats.”
Resorting to the 'blame game' as the PM is doing is a low blow. Democracy loses when a PM who has set herself against the HoC then blames MPs for doing their job. Distracts from Art 50 extension, all part of her strategy to run down the clock and rule out other options. Toxic.
— Sam Gyimah MP (@SamGyimah)
Former Conservative justice minister Phillip Lee told Sky News: “In the last few years we have had enemies of the people headlines about judges, attacks on the Bank of England and now we have got MPs being cast as the enemy of the people.
“In this age, where public discourse has been polluted by more aggression...it strikes me as completely out of order that the Prime Minister can deliver such a statement.”
In her speech last night, Mrs May blamed MPs for failing to so far implement the result of the 2016 EU referendum.
She said: “Of this, I am absolutely sure: You the public have had enough.
“You want this stage of the Brexit process to be over and done with. I agree. I am on your side. It is now time for MPs to decide.”
But Labour MP David Lammy responded: “Theresa May’s attempt to put Parliament against the people on Brexit is sinister. It is the populism of Steve Bannon and Donald Trump. History will judge her brutally.”
A Labour MP told PoliticsHome: “I thought her speech was a f**king disgrace...She’s never had to say to a bloke installing a panic button ‘needs to be a bit higher mate so the kids can’t reach it’.”
Shadow trade secretary Barry Gardiner added: “The trouble has been that Parliament has not been allowed by Theresa May to decide how we should leave.
“Now, we are absolutely facing down the barrel, a week away from leaving, with all the problems in our health service, the problems in our ports and this is what she is still driving forward to, that cliff edge, endangering people’s lives and livelihoods.”
