Dominic Grieve - Member of Parliament for Beaconsfield May 1997 – December 2019

Page 2/48 I remember going to my association and saying, ‘Well, perhaps this will finally clear the air and give people an opportunity to come to a decision,’ and I was also mindful of the fact that some of the critique we had of the EU was absolutely valid. [...] And whilst I was sympathetic to some of the criticisms and noted everything which Ken Clarke was saying, because I think he was the only person who voted against it, I’m afraid I just accepted the inevitability there was going to be this referendum and that we would just have to go with the flow. [...] And then it came back on that resolution, and I said, ‘Well, actually, however wrong it may be, whilst I have total sympathy with the Attorney, I think the Commons motion has to be respected.’ But, no, I didn’t support the original demand for the publication of the Advice and I made quite clear that I was going to support the Attorney, whose role would otherwise be made very difficult. [...] The other issue was whether the court was going to find that it was null and void or was going to order the Government to reverse the prorogation, which I suppose would then have required something to be done by the Government. [...] The consequence, of course, on that was that, within the Conservative group, and I always knew this would happen, it wasn’t as if it was a difficult parting of the ways, but it was abundantly clear that there was going to be a parting of the ways between those who were prepared to accept most things to have a Brexit with a deal, and those who thought, firstly, that the deal the Prime Minister was.