Melanie McDonagh Melanie McDonagh

Is the man who gave us fixed term parliaments now trying to do away with them?

Nick Clegg has written an interesting column for the Evening Standard today about the referendum result. You will not be surprised, reader, that he’s not altogether happy about the outcome. But what’s especially interesting is his insistence that:

‘…there will have to be a general election shortly after the new Conservative leader is elected. The country did not elect a Brexit government last year. The millions of voters who gave David Cameron the benefit of the doubt did so, above all, because they were worried what would happen to the economy if Ed Miliband and Alex Salmond were in charge… And when we vote in that general election, the key question will be this: do we agree or not to the terms of our exit from the EU? Since the Brexiters refused to give us any clue before last week’s referendum, they should be given the opportunity to put their plans to the British people.’

Now, the man who gave us fixed term parliaments which MPs will have to pass a law to do away with in order to hold a referendum in November was, of course, Nick Clegg.

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