“Well the Hulk was a winner as you know,” Stephen Barclay told Sky News’ Ridge on Sunday this morning. “And extremely popular.”
Boris Johnson’s claim he will break the UK out of the EU with the anger of the action hero has been distracting everyone this morning. Although it’s not clear what polling Barclay has been looking at to back up his claim.
The Brexit Secretary told Ridge there was “landing zone” for a deal to be done with Brussels. “Extensive talks been happening at a technical level but also at a political level,” he said.
Over on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, Home Secretary Priti Pate said her “instinct” was “ we have to leave and we have to leave with a deal on October 31.”
It is Lib Dem conference this week and Jo Swinson used her appearance on Marr to make clear that if she found herself in No.10 a government she led would revoke Article 50.
“If the Liberal Democrats win a majority at the next election, if the party put into government is a stop-Brexit party, then stopping Brexit is exactly what they will get,” she said.
Swinson also shot down any suggestion she would help Jeremy Corbyn become prime minister. “Jeremy Corbyn is not going to be put into No.10 with Lib Dem votes,” she said.
Sam Gyimah, the Lib Dem’s latest new recruit, told Ridge revocation “would be on the condition that the British public have overwhelmingly voted for a Liberal Democrat government” at the expected snap election.
Chuka Umunna, another recent defector, told the same programme that victory in an election would give the Lib Dems “a clear democratic mandate” to revoke Article 50 and stop Brexit.
Umunna also said the Tories had become a “right-wing, populist, nationalist party”.
He said: “The ejection of 21 Conservative MPs including Sam Gyimah, who we are incredibly happy to now have in the Liberal Democrats, wasn’t just an ejection of heavyweights, substantial individuals who command respect across the House of Commons, you actually saw the ejection of an entire tradition, the one nation Disraeli tradition, from the Conservative Party.”
Sadiq Khan, London’s Labour mayor, agreed with the Lib Dem position - up to a point.
He told Marr he wanted Article 50 to be revoked to allow the country to “work out what we want” by holding a second referendum. Under Khan’s plan, Article 50 would then be triggered again if people voted for a second time to leave the EU.