A “Reverse Maastricht” Process

H/T Rose for this BBC report:

Pro-Remain MPs are considering using their Commons majority to keep Britain inside the EU single market if there is a vote for Brexit, the BBC has learned.

The MPs fear a post-Brexit government might negotiate a limited free trade deal with the EU, which they say would damage the UK’s economy.

There is a pro-Remain majority in the House of Commons of 454 MPs to 147.

A Vote Leave campaign spokesman said MPs will not be able to “defy the will of the electorate” on key issues.

The single market guarantees the free movement of goods, people, services and capital.

The BBC has learned pro-Remain MPs would use their voting power in the House of Commons to protect what they see as the economic benefits of a single market, which gives the UK access to 500 million consumers.

Staying inside the single market would mean Britain would have to keep its borders open to EU workers and continue paying into EU coffers.

Ministers have told the BBC they expect pro-EU MPs to conduct what one called a “reverse Maastricht” process – a reference to the long parliamentary campaign fought by Tory eurosceptic MPs in the 1990s against legislation deepening EU integration.

In another report:

Pro-Remain Labour MP Stephen Kinnock told the BBC: “If the British people voted to leave the EU, that’s one thing.

“But can we really say that they voted for the devastation and destruction of the entire exporting sector of our economy?

“I don’t think you can necessarily say that there’s a democratic mandate for that.”

A minister told the broadcaster the plan was “not fantasy” but a “huge probability”.

I’m not too surprised at this. The political class all over Europe loves the EU: it acts as a buffer between them and their electorates, and it also gives them lots of dosh. So of course they want to stay in.

I’ve still got no idea which way this referendum will go. One week Remain are in front, and the next week Leave are in front. But I’ve thought all along that if Leave win, Britain won’t be allowed to leave. And parliament blocking it is as good a way of doing that as any.

And then there’d be a political crisis. And there might be one anyway, because both the Remain and the Leave camps believe passionately in their respective causes, and whatever the result, one side will be delighted, and the other enraged. UK politics looks set to become acrimonious and polarised, whatever the result.

But whether Britain leaves or remains, it seems to me that there’s the same problem all over Europe, with more and more ordinary Europeans becoming disenchanted with the EU, while the European political class everywhere tries to hold it together. If not Britain, then France, or Italy, or Spain, are likely to try to break out next.