Former chancellor Ken Clarke has urged the Prime Minister to change her approach to Brexit in an effort to restore public confidence in politics.
The Tory grandee is the latest high-profile figure to weigh in on Theresa May’s Brexit strategy after former Conservative prime ministers David Cameron and Sir John Major both made rare interventions to urge the Government to change course following the General Election.
Leaving the European Union is one of the most pressing issues facing Mrs May, as Brexit talks are due to start in Brussels on Monday.
Mr Clarke told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “You cannot carry out this negotiation on the basis that every aspect of it is going to be negotiated with the DUP to get their vote in support of it and then you are going to try to get the entire Conservative Party to agree with each other on whatever you have tried to negotiate.
“Both parties, major parties, are hopelessly split on the issue.
“The public are very disillusioned with knockabout party politics after low-level debates in the referendum and the General Election.
“I think we’d restore confidence in politics if we could show that this Parliament can at least function in presenting a view in the national interest which could command the majority on a cross-party basis.”
Mr Clarke, a prominent Remain voter, dismissed “silly arguments” that this was an attempt to overturn Brexit, saying MPs had settled the question by voting to trigger Article 50 in the last Parliament.
He said: “We’re in a new situation and the national interest calls for a cross-party approach.”
Recommended for you
