Furious Soubry attacks ‘inherited wealth and gold-plated pensions’ of hard-Brexit Tories

Anna Soubry

Anna Soubry, the outspoken MP for Broxtowe, last night attacked Brexit-supporting colleagues on the Conservative benches in Parliament for having “inherited wealth and gold plated pensions” to fall back on.

In an extraordinary debate yesterday afternoon on the amendments to the Customs Bill by the pro-Brexit European Research Group (ERG) of MPs, Soubry said that “thousands” of jobs would be lost if the UK didn’t deliver a “frictionless trade” by a customs union or “a magical third way” delivered by Prime Minister Theresa May.

In an impassioned speech, Soubry said: “Honourable members sitting on these benches in private conversations know that to be the case. And what they have they have said in those private conversations is that the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs will be worth it to regain our country’s constituency.

To cheers from Tory and opposition benches, she went on: “You tell that to the people of my constituency! You tell that to the people whi voted leave in my constituency. Nobody voted to be poorer, and nobody voted to leave on the basis that somebody with a gold-plated pension and inherited wealth would take their job away from them.”

In the end, Theresa May won last night’s vote by accepting the ERG amendments to the customs bill, but with a reduced majority of just three after finding that the amendments were “consistent with the Brexit white paper”. Some 14 Conservatives MPs voted against the Government.

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