In a monumentous speech to the House of Commons yesterday, the Brexit Minister David Davis set out the government’s plans for taking Britain out of the EU.
“Almost a majority of the British voting public voted for the country to be taken back. Well Brexit means Brexit. People say to me ‘David, what does Brexit mean for me?’, to which I reply that it simply means that Britain will exit. And to bring about the exiting of Britain we shall set up many think tanks and gravy trains, to discuss the possibility of a plan being made to start the process of starting the process of leaving the EU.
These plans, once they are made, will be presented to the British people for consultation, possibly in some sort of referendum. And the result of that referendum will form the basis of plans to begin the Brexit process.
And I say to those who wished to remain, that we were given a clear 2% mandate that the people wished to Brexit. Not Brexit-lite, Diet Brexit, Special K Brexit or any of the other options which we have no plans for either.
But what we do know is that there will be no points based immigration system. Rather like the 350 million pounds for the NHS, this campaign pledge was entirely advisory and open to interpretation and nuance.”
It was at this point that the speaker of the house had to stop Mr Davis, because commons privilege on saying what you like in the chamber can only be stretched so far.
