Key Brexit player Dominic Grieve ousted

Mr Grieve was one of 21 Conservative MPs who, on September 4, had the party whip withdrawn over their opposition to a no-deal Brexit.

He has been at the forefront of ensuring that MPs have a greater say in what happens with Brexit, and an amendment he tabled to the Northern Ireland Bill in July 2019 made forcing through a no-deal Brexit more difficult for the government.

The amendment, which passed by just one vote, required the government to give fortnightly updates on power-sharing to MPs, which made it hard for the government to suspend Parliament.

Mr Grieve has consistently said he believes a no-deal would be “catastrophic” for the UK, and called for the decision on Brexit to be returned back to the people.

During the Brexit negotiation process, he made a number of other amendments against the government’s plans to leave the EU.

The first was to give Parliament a “meaningful vote” over the Brexit agreement, and in December 2017, he tabled an amendment to the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill requiring any Brexit deal to be enacted by statute, rather than implemented by government order, which passed in Parliament.

Mr Grieve was also one of the signatories of a statement made in December 2018 by a group of senior Conservatives calling for a another referendum over Brexit.

In March 2019 ,Mr Grieve made a successful amendment to a government business motion which allowed for Commons business to be set aside for a series of indicative votes to try and decide a consensus on Brexit.

Mr Grieve was standing as an independent candidate against his Conservative replacement in a constituency long considered a safe Tory seat.

In 2017, Mr Grieve retained his post with a huge 24,000 majority over Labour.

Last week, former prime minister, Sir John Major endorsed Mr Grieve and two other ex-Conservative independent candidates running against Boris Johnson’s party in the General Election.

In March, he faced deselection by his then party the Conservatives after losing a confidence vote held by his local association by 182 to 131 votes.

In November, in his current role as head of the Intelligence and Security committee, Mr Grieve led the call for the publication of a report on Russian meddling in the democratic process to be published before the General Election.

Born in Lambeth, London, Mr Grieve is the son of former Tory MP for Solihull and QC Percy Grieve and Anglo-French Evelyn Raymonde Louise Mijouain.

He was a Conservative activist from a young age, and during his time at Oxford University, he was president of the Conservative Association in 1977.

Mr Grieve practised as a health and safety law barrister until he was elected as MP for Beaconsfield in 1997.

Former prime minister David Cameron regarded Mr Grieve as a “star performer in parliament”.

Mr Grieve, who was appointed the government’s most senior legal adviser in 2010, was one of the most vocal supporters of the European Convention on Human Rights.

After losing his position as attorney general in 2014 following a cabinet reshuffle by then leader David Cameron, Mr Grieve said he “would have very happily stayed on”.

In 2012, Mr Grieve was at odds with Mr Cameron and then justice secretary Chris Grayling during the controversy over giving prisoners the right to vote.

While Mr Cameron pledged to defy a European Court of Human Rights ruling that a blanket ban on voting for anyone sent to jail was illegal, Mr Grieve publicly argued that the UK had a legal duty to implement the judgement.

The loss of Mr Grieve comes ahead of a critical year for the UK, with Mr Johnson promising to “get Brexit done” by January 31, and to strike a trade deal with the EU by the end of next year.