Sky News: Senior Liberal Democrat Sir Vince Cable has said he is “beginning to think Brexit may never happen”.
Sir Vince, who is likely to become his party’s next leader, said: “The problems are so enormous, the divisions within the two major parties are enormous.
“I can see a scenario in which this doesn’t happen.”
The former Cabinet minister said the Lib Dems’ policy of having a second referendum on the final exit deal – with the choice of staying in the EU on the ballot paper – was “designed to give a way out when it becomes clear that Brexit is potentially disastrous”.
But Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi told Sky News he suspected Sir Vince would regret making the comment.
He said: “We have to remember people voted in a democratic referendum for us to leave the EU institutions.
“That does not mean leaving Europe, we will remain very much partners with Europe, we are very much committed to that.
“I think Vince, I suspect, will regret those comments.”
Theresa May’s Brexit approach – which includes leaving the customs union and single market and prioritising controlling immigration – has been called into question after she lost her majority in the General Election.
Critics, and some within her own party, have called for the Prime Minister to moderate her approach and prioritise avoiding a “cliff edge” for businesses when Brexit takes effect.
In the wake of the result, a number of senior European figures have said Britain is welcome to change its mind on Brexit.
Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament’s Brexit coordinator, said the UK could stay, but only on poorer terms.
French President Emmanuel Macron said the “door remains open” until negotiations end.
Twickenham MP Sir Vince, who is the only candidate to replace Tim Farron as Lib Dem leader, said Brexit offered the party an opportunity.
He acknowledged Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn had a good election, but “there is an element of bubble about it” because “actually he is very pro-Brexit, and a hard Brexit, and when that becomes apparent the divisions in the Labour Party will become more real and the opportunity for us to move into that space will be substantial”.
“There is an imminent issue, which is whether the Government continues to pursue the so-called hard Brexit – leaving the customs union and single market,” Sir Vince told the BBC’s Andrew Marr show.
“We have got to work with other people, we did last week, there was a motion in Parliament led by some Labour MPs we supported, to try to head off that disastrous outcome.”
If the economy suffers, people will reconsider Brexit and “the whole question of continued membership will once again arise”.
Sir Vince has been criticised for claiming the PM’s rhetoric on “citizens of nowhere” was like something from Adolf Hitler’s book Mein Kampf.
He admitted he had compared Mrs May to the wrong dictator: “I got my literary reference wrong – I think it was (Soviet leader Joseph) Stalin who talked about ‘rootless’ cosmopolitans’.”
