A prominent medical professor was applauded on Question Time after explaining why a group of Tories were acting “in the spirit of the whole Brexit issue” by rebelling against the government.
On Wednesday night, 11 Conservative MPs - including Anna Soubry and Dominic Grieve - sided with the opposition and voted in favour of giving MPs a meaningful vote on the exit deal agreed with Brussels, narrowly defeating the government.
The move triggered a huge backlash from the Daily Mail, which slammed them as “self-consumed malcontents” in a controversial front page story.
But last night, Professor Robert Winston congratulated fellow panelist and Tory rebel Nicky Morgan for her decision, calling it something “splendid”.
“You did exactly what was in the spirit of the whole Brexit issue,” the Labour lord told the former education secretary.
“The reason why people voted for Brexit was because they wanted to have the sovereignty of the British Parliament and what you ensured last night was the sovereignty of the British Parliament so that Parliament will have a say in how things are negotiated.
“And that was something which was splendid to do and I congratulate you.”
Winston continued: “But there are some real problems that we have to face. For example, in the NHS there’s a massive problem growing because of Brexit. There’s also the issue of Euratom, which nobody is discussing.
“And these are things that are important,” he said.
“For example, we will no longer have any kind of relationship with Europe over atomic isotopes. Things like that are going to affect the whole of cancer therapy, all sorts of drug making, all kinds of issues that affect medical treatment on a day-to-day basis in our hospitals. Leaving aside the man power crisis, which is growing.
“There are also all sorts of other issues which need to be disentangled and that’s why we absolutely have to have this negotiation and it has to be run by Parliament. It can’t be run by Brussels.”
Winston was applauded for his stance by both the live audience and viewers at home, many of whom took to Twitter.