Anna Soubry: I don’t care what my Brexit stance costs me, I’ll keep on opposing it

Anna Soubry speaks out during a Brexit debate in the House of Commons. Photograph: Parliament TV. - Credit: Archant

A former Conservative minister touched on the personal impact of her opposition to Brexit, telling MPs: ‘I don’t care what that costs me.’

Anna Soubry insisted she was putting her country first, even if it meant she could not return home at the weekend because of ‘death threats’, adding she also felt frightened for the safety of her partner and children.

The MP for Broxtowe, who left the Conservatives to join the Independent Group, made her remarks after Tory Brexiteer Bill Grant said the number of those who marched in favour of a second EU referendum and had backed a petition to revoke Article 50 fell short of the 17.4 million who voted Leave.

He referred to some MPs having ‘wafer thin margins’, to which Soubry replied: ‘The majority of people in this country did not vote to leave the European Union.

‘As somebody who has one of the smallest majorities (863)… let me tell him this: I am not interested in my majority.

‘I am not interested in just coming back to this place to take the money and just sit and enjoy all the privileges of being a Member of Parliament.

‘I will put my country and my constituents first and foremost and I don’t care what that costs me.

‘If that means I can’t go home at the weekend because of death threats, if that means I have to get a taxi in order to do a 10-minute walk, if that means I have to be frightened of my wellbeing and my partner’s and my children – I feel sorry for them and that can’t be right – but this is the biggest decision this country has made since the Second World War, and we come to this place to represent our constituents and do the right thing by our country.

‘It isn’t about us, it’s not about your party, it’s about doing the right thing and in this instance the right thing is to get this back to the British people.’