By Ben Kerrigan-

Charging Theresa May and her government with lack of tactic or smartness, Clegg accused Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and the other ”cast of chancers and opportunists” of  ”denying the mendacity of their original campaign”.

Clegg insisted that whilst the government has a mandate to implement Brexit, they don’t have a mandate on the form Brexit should take. He continued by suggesting that this ”cast of chancers” still won’t come clean on what Brexit means.

Pressed by show host Andrew Marr, Clegg denied wanting to subvert the Brexit outcome, stressing instead that he wants to hold them accountable according to the expected process of a political democracy. Marr stated that if May were to consult Parliament on her scheduled plans and procedures, any refusal by back- benchers would undermine her plans and authority.

According to Clegg, this would simply lead to a revision of those plans, which would be positive. Clegg emphatically stated that May’s commitment to trigger Article 50 by March was unrealistic and not smart because it instantly loses her “a quarter of her negotiating timetable” since the Germans will refuse to talk until after their own election next summer. Exactly what makes Clegg so sure the Germans will not talk just because of their elections is unclear. The smart guess is that Clegg believes they would be too busy with their internal political affairs to engage in Brexit issues of any sort, but this assumption may not be accurate. ”Nothing will meaningfully happen until the German election”, Clegg stated.

 Elaborating on his claim that May and her government are not being ”smart or tactical”, Clegg said ”i think Theresa May made a fundamental tactical error by saying, frankly, to throw red meat to her back benches, that she is going to trigger Article 50 in May next year. ”She’s already in doing so, lost about a quarter of her negotiating time table because if anybody in Europe,- and I speak many politicians- will tell you nothing is going to meaningfully happen next year until after the elections”.

A group of cross-party MPs have launched a campaign to renew pressure on ministers over Brexit by forcing a parliamentary vote on whether they should reveal their plans for the UK’s future outside of the EU.

In a bid to assure the prime minister, Mr.Clegg said that Theresa May had nothing to fear, because the campaign is simply there to ensure the mandate of the British people is carried out in a way which doesn’t “throw the single market baby out of the EU bath water”.

Between a rock and a hard Brexit

However, Marr and Clegg both expressed an understanding that Brexit and access to the single market are incompatible, but clearly Clegg has other ideas. Clegg clearly believes that if Parliament were to play a role in the process of Brexit, things would be a lot tidier and not many errors will be made.