The UK needs Brexit rebels with a cause

Boris Johnson has said the UK will leave the EU with or without a deal on 31 October (Picture: Dominic Lipinski - WPA Pool/Getty Images)

There’s a certain cachet that comes from being the kind of person who’s prepared to break the rules, rock the boat, casually dismiss the authority of the powers-that-be. In short, rebels are cool.

The trouble for such mavericks in politics – those who, unlike James Dean in 1955, have a cause – is that if they are successful enough, they can find themselves in power. Suddenly, they are the ones attempting to assert their authority, asking others to follow their lead and fretting over troublemakers within their own ranks.

And they often discover it is considerably easier to say what you are against than to come up with ideas which actually make life better and that people will support.

Jeremy Corbyn, a regular rebel during the New Labour years, is a prime example. He has struggled to win over many of his own MPs, some of whom are among his biggest critics. And the lack of strong leadership has meant that despite the Tories’ extraordinary turmoil, Labour shows no signs of winning over enough voters to deliver a majority in the House of Commons in the event of a general election.

And so it is that Labour may well find itself putting together a coalition including the SNP, with the likely price of granting permission to hold a second independence referendum.

Meanwhile, Conservative members still appear likely to appoint another rebel, Boris Johnson, to the highest office in the land. Johnson may wish to read up on Corbyn’s trials and tribulations, if only to learn from his mistakes.

Because, should he find himself in 10 Downing Street, the former Foreign Secretary will be counting on the likes of Theresa May to support his Brexit plan. The same Theresa May whose Brexit plan Johnson once described as a “constitutional abomination” that meant “for the first time since 1066, our leaders were deliberately acquiescing in foreign rule”.

May yesterday refused to give her unconditional support to her successor when asked if she would do so regardless of what kind of Brexit was negotiated, deal or no deal – remarks interpreted as May laying down a marker that she might rebel against the latter scenario.

The ‘Maybot’ isn’t many people’s idea of cool, but if she has the courage to rebel in order to save the UK from the economic disaster of a no-deal, then such trivial considerations will not matter a jot.

The UK needs Brexit rebels with a cause – leader comment