Former Defence Minister Guto Bebb came out in favour of a second referendum over the weekend, a few weeks after resigning his ministerial post to join a Remainer rebellion on the Customs Bill.

While Bebb’s Remainer tendencies have long been known, his Leave-voting constituents might be somewhat peeved by his sudden move to trying to reverse the referendum result, because it wasn’t so long ago that he told them in his North Wales Weekly News column on 27 June that:

“You cannot, in my view, have voted for a referendum only to then try and stop the decision taken being implemented.”

And as recently as last month, he used his column to promise them:

“All I can promise is to be a voice for those who accept that we are leaving the EU but want to do so in a constructive and business friendly manner.”

Less than three weeks later, he has he has directly broken his promise to his constituents. It’s funny, because back in 2016, he actually took the trouble of slapping down another MP who questioned the referendum result:

“I will take no lessons from the hon. Gentleman. He claims to be a democrat, but on several occasions in the debate he has called for another referendum. I think what we are seeing is an individual who perhaps did not fight as hard for his beliefs as he should have during the referendum and is now asking for a second chance.”

Guto Bebb MP used to slap down those who call for a second referendum – it’s not what democrats do. We got it right the first time… pic.twitter.com/HMe3Dex91D

— Change Britain (@Change_Britain) September 9, 2018

Bebb’s majority is a mere 635, in a constituency which voted 52% Leave according to Chris Hanretty. Interestingly, UKIP won 3,467 votes in 2015 and didn’t field a candidate in Aberconwy in 2017. It’s fair to say that Bebb wouldn’t be in Parliament without the support of former UKIP voters. Risky move in a marginal…