A warning to all liberal Tories

I led the “Conservatives In” campaign to stay in the European Union. But like millions of other Remain voters, I am a democrat first and foremost. I have accepted the result and I support Boris’s deal. The country must move on.

It is fundamental to democracy that we implement the will of the people. Yet too many MPs have forgotten they promised to abide by the people’s decision. They spent three years trying to frustrate the result. Now they want to waste the next five doing the same.

Every time one of the ultra-Remainers’ spurious claims is defeated, they invent another. They said Boris could not reopen the Withdrawal Agreement and Brussels would not budge. Boris stood his ground and proved them wrong.

Now they say we will face a new cliff-edge No Deal at the end of next year unless a trade deal is completed with the EU. But there is no comparison with what faced us before. We will have left the EU by then.

Two big concerns — citizens’ rights and Northern Ireland — will have been dealt with.

It is true that time will be tight. For that we can blame the MPs who did everything in their power to delay our exit. But Boris has proved he is an effective negotiator. Both sides want a trade deal and our economies are already aligned, making agreement easier.

With a working majority, Boris’s hand will be stronger and the job will be done. Ultra-Remainers have conjured up this new No Deal spectre because they are desperate. They know that if Boris wins the General Election, we will leave the EU by the end of January and the game will be up.

Their second referendum campaign is in tatters and the Liberal Democrats’ pledge to revoke Brexit has bombed. The clock is counting down to an election that could settle the issue once and for all. So they are resorting to ever-more ludicrous claims.

So-called moderates should be ashamed of the insults they are hurling at Boris. It is absurd to call his agenda “far-right” or “extreme”. This language should be reserved to describe hateful movements such as the BNP or the National Front. It should not be casually thrown around by fools who have been so blinded by their hatred of Brexit they have lost all sense of proportion.

Boris was a successful Mayor of London who won a second term and delivered for the public. His plans to boost funding for schools and the NHS, for more police and to increase the National Living Wage, are clearly mainstream. When Boris calls for tougher sentences for violent criminals, he is speaking squarely for the millions of quiet Brits who share these views. They hate being branded as extremists by metropolitan elitists who have lost touch with everyday concerns.

Liberal Conservatives like me are entirely comfortable supporting today’s party. I have marched alongside Boris for gay rights. I have heard him speak passionately about protecting the environment. I have walked down streets and seen him connect with people like no other politician can.

I cannot understand how anyone who previously called themselves a Conservative could bring themselves to urge people to vote against the party at this election. That is tantamount to saying Jeremy Corbyn should be PM.

These Tory turncoats justify themselves by claiming Brexit will damage the economy. But the public rejected that argument when they voted for Brexit. And you can’t warn about jobs and investment while being willing to allow the catastrophic impact of a government led by Corbyn and Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell.

Never in my lifetime have I seen an agenda like Labour’s today: Ruinous nationalisation; spending pledges the country cannot begin to pay for; the return of crushing union power; a leader who has consistently sided with our country’s enemies and who refuses to tackle endemic racism in his own party.

This isn’t the loony left. It is the lethal left. It is a blood-red recipe to crash the economy, impoverish our public services and relegate Britain to a third-rate power. No moderate should even consider supporting it. One by one, former Labour MPs are calling out Corbyn, warning us of the dangers.

Why can’t the ultra-Remainer former Tory MPs and muddled old warhorses like Lord Heseltine, who once understood the threat of socialism, see it? Blinded by their hatred of Brexit, they say the election offers a Hobson’s choice between two extremes. That is hogwash. There is no equivalence between Corbyn’s hard-left programme and Boris’ mainstream Conservative agenda.

Even if you want the referendum result reversed, which most people do not, a neo-Marxist in No10 cannot be a price worth paying. It is time for those who call themselves moderates to wake up and realise the truly extreme step would be to help make Corbyn PM next week.

This article was published in The Sun on 6 December - the original can be read here.