Boris Johnson’s Conservative party lost its working majority in the House of Commons on Tuesday, as former minister Phillip Lee defected to the pro-Remain Liberal Democrats in a day of high Brexit tension.
Dr Lee, a general practitioner who served as justice minister, crossed the floor of the Commons chamber as Mr Johnson delivered a statement on the recent G7 summit. As one of the few Tory MPs in favour of a second Brexit referendum he had long been expected to leave the party.
A member for 27 years, he bid farewell to the Tories, saying that the party had become “a narrow faction” that is “infected with the twin diseases of populism and English nationalism”. Dr Lee said that the Liberal Democrats are “best placed to build the unifying and inspiring political force needed to heal our divisions.”
In a letter to Mr Johnson explaining his departure, Dr Lee wrote that the prime minister’s policy of potentially leaving the EU without a deal on October 31 would risk lives.
“This Conservative government is aggressively pursuing a damaging Brexit in unprincipled ways. It is putting lives and livelihoods at risk unnecessarily and it is wantonly endangering the integrity of the United Kingdom,” he said.
The Liberal Democrats, who support both a second referendum and remaining in the EU, now have 15 MPs, following the election of Jane Dodds in a recent by-election and the defections of Conservative MP Sarah Wollaston and Chuka Umunna from Change UK. It is now the fourth largest party in the House of Commons.
Dr Lee predicted that more Conservative MPs would follow his move to the Liberal Democrats. “I don’t expect to be the last person to make this decision,” he said.
Following Dr Lee’s defection, the Conservative party and its allies in the Democratic Unionist Party have lost their parliamentary majority. The government is theoretically susceptible to losing a confidence vote if one is brought forward by the opposition Labour party before parliament is shut down next week.
If all opposition MPs — including the 20 independents — voted against Mr Johnson’s government, the Conservative government would collapse. But several independent parliamentarians, who are adverse to making Jeremy Corbyn prime minister, would be unlikely to vote to bring down the government.
Mr Johnson told MPs that “things are moving” in Brexit talks with the EU and insisted that progress was being made, despite reports that senior Downing Street officials see the negotiation process to remove the backstop — an insurance policy to avoid a hard border with Ireland — as a “sham”.
The prime minister also attacked efforts by MPs opposed to no-deal to take control of the House of Commons to introduce legislation to force another Brexit delay, likening their plan to surrendering to the EU.
But Mr Johnson did give a glimpse of modest new British thinking on handling the Irish border when he accepted the case for treating animals, plants and food being managed “on a common basis across the island of Ireland”.
That would mean agri-foods could be treated as part of the EU single market to avoid border checks in Ireland, provided it was agreed “by all parties and institutions”. Any new EU rules applicable on plant or animal health would have to be approved by the currently suspended Stormont assembly in Belfast.
However agri-foods are already subject to some checks in the Irish Sea — for example to stop the spread of animal diseases from Great Britain to the island of Ireland — and the proposal in itself does not address EU concerns about the border.
