I noted recently on Facebook there are people who seem surprised that a majority of MPs are opposed to Brexit. This was prompted by a survey in The Times and reported by The Express (HERE). The supporters of Brexit are in a minority even in The Conservative party and in the Commons as a whole about two thirds of all MPs are opposed. I thought it was well known. It got me thinking about where we would be had there been a majority in the Conservative party who were pro-Brexit in 2010 or 2015. Would we have had a referendum or would they have just gone ahead anyway?
I am sure the Brexiteers would have said the question was far too complicated for the average man in the street to understand and they would have put it in the manifesto and gone to the country on that basis. It was precisely because the Brexiteers knew they could never persuade a majority of their colleagues in parliament of the case for leaving the EU that they had to press for a referendum.
This was true in spades for UKIP because they never had more than a single MP and now they have none at all.
