Remainers rally

It may seem odd that a cabal of politicians, celebrities and millionaires can successfully present themselves as a great democratic force and seek to overturn Brexit. But the people behind the People’s Vote have one big advantage: their opponents are in disarray.

Vote Leave ceased campaigning after the referendum. Its organisers felt they had accomplished their mission, and the Conservative government could be trusted to execute Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union. Boris Johnson now describes that decision as an ‘absolutely fatal’ mistake.

As foreign secretary, Johnson admitted to dinner guests earlier this summer that ‘some of us were seduced by high office in government’. He and other key Brexiteers, such as David Davis and Michael Gove, took cabinet positions in a government that was, at best, uncertain about Brexit. The task of campaigning for Brexit thus fell to the European Research Group — made up of Eurosceptic backbenchers — which soon turned into the Jacob Rees-Mogg show.