Brexit news latest: Former Tory Cabinet minister Lord Willetts backs second referendum

Lord Willetts today backed the campaign for a second referendum on the outcome of Brexit talks.

The former Tory Cabinet minister, dubbed “Two Brains” because of his intellect, gave his support for a “People’s Vote”, warning that Britain’s economic success must not be “sacrificed to fulfil ideological obsessions”.

The peer, who now chairs the Resolution Foundation think tank, joined a number of Conservative MPs who are calling for the public to have another say before the UK quits the EU.

They include former attorney general Dominic Grieve, ex-education secretary Justine Greening, Commons health committee chairwoman Sarah Wollaston, former ministers Guto Bebb, Phillip Lee and Anna Soubry, and outspoken backbencher Heidi Allen.

Ex-home secretary Amber Rudd has signalled she could back a second vote over a no-deal Brexit and about 40 colleagues are said to support that position.

Lord Willetts said: “The Conservative Party’s electoral success is based on our long-term ability to deliver economic success and support wealth creation.

“We should not sacrifice that to fulfil the ideological obsessions of a small number of backbenchers in the ERG [European Research Group of Brexiteer Tory MPs].

“Backing a People’s Vote is good Conservative common sense, based on putting the national interest first at all times: the soundest of Tory doctrines.”

The People’s Vote campaign claims Brexit cost the taxpayer £5 billion in the last financial year in interest payments alone due to devaluation of the pound, higher inflation and the downgrading of the UK’s sovereign debt.