Bennett - The Brexit Club

A t the moment, Farage and UKIP are the only people speaking up for Brexit. All these Tory Eurosceptics, including yourself, you cant even admit that you are actually voting out. Why should we be listening to you? Thats exactly why Farage and UKIP are the leading voice in this campaign.

Many of the 200 or so people in the room, including UKIP MEP Tim Aker, applauded the mans comments.

But John Redwood, the Conservative MP on the panel and the person at whom the question was aimed, simply folded his arms and spoke softly into the microphone.

Ive been careful not to make any criticism of Mr Farage or even UKIP, he said.

Ive been working very hard to get you all to understand that we need to get together and we need to speak in a tone and in terms that address the many people out there who dont yet agree with us, rather than constantly talking to each other about whether our doctrines and views are pure enough or not. I really would urge you to think carefully about that sound advice.

Apart from a smattering of applause, the majority of the audience were unconvinced by Redwoods plea.

They wanted a full-throated attack on Prime Minister David Camerons plan for renegotiating the UKs relationship with Brussels.

They wanted Redwood to lambast the political establishment for its dedication to a European project that had slyly stolen sovereignty from Britain since 1973.

They wanted to be told that the Out campaign was going to win the upcoming referendum, which many had been awaiting for forty years.

They did not want to be told to think carefully.

Tim Aker, who less than a month earlier had failed to win a seat in Parliament at the 2015 general election, did give the audience of Eurosceptic campaigners what they wanted.

In his grey double-breasted suit which made him look a generation older than his thirty years Aker decided now was the time to kill his idol.

It saddens me that someone whos so learned about the European Union can be so half-hearted in their approach at this point in time, he began, before raising his voice along with his rhetoric:

I grew up in politics and so on, reading your books, John, and you were a great inspiration, but to be on a panel where now, after the Lisbon Treaty, after every battle that you have fought against and lost, you still say, We might stay in the European Union; I might vote to stay in, I find that absolutely ridiculous and disingenuous to the people listening here tonight and the people who will see it on YouTube.

He wasnt finished: To see that you can say, after everything, after 300,000 net immigration, after the complete reduction of our fishing waters, of everything else, for you to say, I might just think about staying in and not commit, I think thats very disingenuous and Im very disappointed.

The room broke out in applause. Redwood, who had let out a loud sigh during Akers speech, was in an unfamiliar situation: he was being accused of not being Eurosceptic enough.

It was not a claim often levelled at him.

John Redwood the man who at the height of Conservative divisions over Europe in the mid-1990s challenged Prime Minister John Major for the leadership of the party.

John Redwood the man who repeatedly attacked the European super-state through numerous books, such as Just Say No!: 100 Arguments against the Euro and The Death of Britain?.

John Redwood the man who as a 23-year-old campaigned for a No vote the last time there was a referendum on the UKs European membership, in 1975.

John Redwood the archetypal Conservative Eurosceptic.

And yet, on 1 June 2015, the 63-year-old Wokingham MP was deemed to be not Eurosceptic enough by the majority of the audience at a meeting of the Bruges Group.

Formed in 1989, the group was inspired by Margaret Thatchers speech in Belgium the previous year attacking the creeping powers of the European project.

The group holds regular events, mainly in the plush surroundings of the Royal Over-Seas League House, located a stones throw from St Jamess Palace.

The Bruges Group had kept the Eurosceptic flame burning ever since its creation through the knifing of Thatcher, the turmoil of the Tory Party in the mid-1990s, and the virtual irrelevance of the Conservatives in the noughties.

Speakers addressing meetings would often deliver their anti-EU musings from a podium that had a signed black-and-white framed photograph of Thatcher attached to the front.

The Iron Lady was always looking out at the groups members, who could derive solace from her gaze.

But that nights meeting, titled The EU and the Future of Britain, was proving a tough ride for Redwood one of Thatchers favoured sons.

Much of the evening had involved Aker talking up the brilliance of UKIP leader Nigel Farage, insisting that the only reason an EU referendum was now going to happen was because of him.

For Redwood, this was not a point worth debating climbing the mountain to victory was what mattered now, not how the Eurosceptic supporters had reached base camp.

The surprise general election win by the Conservative Party twenty-five days earlier meant the EU referendum would now have to happen before the end of 2017.

The pledge had been included in the Tory manifesto, and the partys unexpected win meant it had not been horse-traded away in coalition agreement discussions. The Tories were ruling alone, so the referendum was on.

But before the vote, there was the small matter of Camerons renegotiation of the terms of the UKs membership.

During his speech before the question-and-answer session, Redwood told the audience:

I know there are some here who would rather just leave the European Union tomorrow. I have to tell you, you have not attracted enough support for that proposal and there is no majority in the House of Commons for that proposal, and that should be of interest and concern to you. The route we have chosen may take a little longer, may be more subtle than some of you wish, but it is meant well and I ask you to hear me out and to understand the journey we are embarked upon. If, as many of you think, there is no such sensible deal on offer, do you not see that it would be much easier to persuade our fellow citizens that we must leave the European Union because a serious-minded and intelligent Prime Minister had done his best to try and deal with the obvious difficulties that many British people find with our current membership? If he is unable to deal with those issues then it would be that much easier to persuade the necessary number of people to vote no in a referendum.

The subtlety of the argument was lost on many, including Aker.

Redwood ended up almost pleading with the audience to think beyond how to appeal to just those in the room.

If you spend your whole time shouting at people that theyve got to leave tomorrow, you are not going to win, he said.

Looking on from the back of the room was Michael Heaver, the 25-year-old recently appointed by Farage to be his right-hand man. For him, the reaction of the audience at the meeting confirmed what he had long thought: Nigel Farage should lead the Out campaign.

Over a glass of wine in the reception area of Over-Seas House once the meeting had ended, Heaver batted away alternative names put to him as potential leaders including the Tory rising star Priti Patel.

As far as he was concerned, it was only Farage who could appeal to the millions of undecided voters across the country.

During the meeting, Aker was asked: What happens if Farage does become the leader of the Out campaign?

We win. It is that simple, was his reply.

What he didnt know was that plans were already afoot plans with roots stretching back long before the general election to make sure that didnt happen.