It must feel pretty lonely being Caroline Flint right now. The Labour MP has made herself unpopular with her comrades by backing Boris Johnson’s deal to leave the EU. Flint campaigned for Remain but accepts that her Don Valley constituency voted 68 per cent Leave. In the former mining towns of her South Yorkshire seat, Flint points out, the figure was closer to 80 per cent. ‘The voices in our mining villages remain unheard, despite their support for Labour over many decades,’ she records in her Labour case for respecting the outcome of the 2016 referendum.
Both Flint and her case have now felt the ire of the progressive Brexitariat, the analysts, academics and activists who frame elite debate on EU withdrawal.
They are particularly irritable at the moment after ridiculing every fool who suggested Johnson could get Brussels to move on an exit deal only to find themselves left wearing the jester’s hat.
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