ANDREW PIERCE: 'Proof' Brexit rebel Anna Soubry DID join the Social Democratic Party after leaving Thatcher's Tories 

By Andrew Pierce for the Daily Mail 01:09 19 Feb 2018, updated 01:56 19 Feb 2018

Predictably, the first Tory to attack Boris Johnson's keynote speech on Brexit was Remoaner-in-chief Anna Soubry.

The former business minister voted to hold the referendum — but she has seemingly never come to terms with the result.

Soubry, who left the Tory Party under Mrs Thatcher in the Eighties, has always denied she then joined the Social Democratic Party (SDP), founded by former Labour Cabinet ministers.

But a copy of a document written in 1981 by Tim Cowell, the assistant director of youth at Tory HQ, has come into my hands. It says she did defect.

'Since the last meeting the most notable event has been the defection to the SDP by eight activists in the party,' he wrote. And Soubry's name is on the list.

There is further corroboration in the book Conservative Radicalism: A Sociology Of Conservative Party Youth Structures And Libertarianism 1970-92 by the academic Tim Evans. 

On page 25, he writes: 'The SDP soon attracted some Tory wets including some who left the Federation of Conservative Students.'

Anna Soubry — the first female Tory on the executive board of the National Union of Students — was named by Evans alongside Adair Turner, who went on to lead the EU-loving CBI.

Soubry tells me, however: 'I certainly left the Conservative Party and I believe the others did join [the SDP], but I did not.'

The plot thickens.

The Valentine's Day message from Brexit Central? 'Roses are red, violets are blue, but they're subject to an 8.5 per cent tariff, while we're in the EU.'

Poor old Vince Cable. The Lib Dem leader has sent a letter to all party members boasting about his commitment to diversity. 

'From the start of my leadership, I have made improving our party's diversity a key priority...,' it starts. Every letter was addressed to 'Dear John'.

Could the reason Labour's Brexit position changes by the week be that the party's spokesman, lawyer Sir Keir Starmer, is too busy making money? 

Last month, he received £3,300 for six hours' work from Simons Muirhead & Burton solicitors. 

The solicitors made a £5,000 donation to Starmer's office last summer. So is Starmer, the former director of public prosecutions, keeping his hand in legal practice, in case he fails to secure the Labour leadership after Comrade Corbyn? 

Which wag in Boris Johnson's office thought it a good idea for him to make a speech praising Brexit at the HQ of the Policy Exchange think-tank? 

The other tenants in the building are the Brexit-loathing Lib Dems — so just as Boris started to speak, they appeared waving banners.

History was made in Parliament last week as Welsh was spoken in a debate for the first time. 

The Welsh Grand Committee of MPs was the first to use translation facilities after a relaxation of rules banning anything but English. 

Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns hailed the 'historic day', adding: 'I'm proud to be using the language I grew up speaking.'

Quote of the week: European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said: 'Some in the British political society are against the truth, pretending that I am a stupid, stubborn federalist, that I am in favour of a European superstate. 

I am strictly against a European superstate.' This is the man who's been calling for an EU army, an EU finance minister, and compulsory euro membership for all EU states.

The Mother of Parliaments has a lot to answer for when it comes to plastic waste, according to Zac Goldsmith, the 43-year-old Tory MP for Richmond Park.

Goldsmith is backing a new national campaign calling for a Plastic Free Parliament. Zac fumes that each year two million 'plastic straws and stirrers, coffee cups and lids, condiment sachets, plastic cutlery and disposable plastic water bottles are all still used across the Palace of Westminster estate, all of which can be eliminated.'

They could do with eliminating some of the plastic MPs, too.