Lord Lamont: people who want second Brexit vote 'don't believe in democracy'

Former Chancellor Lord Lamont has issued a warning to peers not to amend Theresa May’s Brexit Bill and blasted those calling for a second referendum as anti-democractic.

The senior Tory’s veiled swipe at the Lib Dems - who want to give people another say on the terms of Brexit - came after another senior Conservative described the party’s 102 peers as “beached whales noisily swimming against the democratic tide.”

Lord Lamont said: “Any people who retreat into “we’re going to come back for a second one”, don’t believe in democracy. I believe in democracy and I believe we should proceed rapidly with this bill without amendment.”

The 74-year-old peer led John Major’s bruising campaign to sign up to the Maastricht Treaty in the early 1990s, but said he accepted the European project had changed and was quite different to when Britain first joined in 1973.

Speaking on the second day of the Lords debate on the Brexit Bill, the pro-Brexit peer said: “I little dreamt 45-years-later I would actually be advocating the reverse procedure, namely that we should withdraw from the union I advocated joining.

“But it’s not me whose changed, it’s Europe.”

Lib Dem calls for another EU referendum were met with hostility throughout the first day of debate with Labour claiming they have “isolated” themselves.

Labour’s shadow Brexit spokesperson Baroness Hayter said today: “One thing that was really very strange was how isolated the Lib Dems were. The cross-benchers do not take what the Lib Dems are doing very well.

“Almost none of the Lib Dems used the word “referendum”. They talk about “going back to the people” as if they know the word referendum isn’t good.”

However former Tory Scottish secretary, Lord Forsyth, blasted the party and said the British people had clearly shown they wanted to leave the EU on the June 23 referendum.

He said: “What part of that do those on the Liberal Benches not understand? [The Lib Dems] are opposed to the composition of this House, arguing that it lacks democratic legitimacy.

“Despite being reduced to a rump of nine Members in the House of Commons, more than 100 of them have landed here like beached whales noisily swimming against the democratic tide.”

The Labour and Lib Dems are expected to team up and vote in favour of amendments to the Government’s Brexit Bill.

Both parties would outnumber the Tories 252 peers.