On 1 April 2019, Nick Boles dramatically resigned from the Conservative Party, citing his party’s refusal to compromise over Brexit. His departure came shortly after the results of a second round of indicative votes were announced, which saw his Common Market 2.0 proposal – also known as “Norway plus” – narrowly defeated.

Boles was first elected as a Conservative MP in 2010. He went on to serve as a minister in the 2010-2015 Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government, including as minister of state for skills. He held this post until July 2016 and David Cameron’s resignation as prime minister.

Boles, who founded the Policy Exchange think tank in 2002, was seen as a “moderniser” ally of Cameron and a staple of the so-called Notting Hill set.

Boles supported the Remain campaign during the 2016 referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union (EU) and established himself as a prominent proponent of a “soft Brexit”. In the wake of the referendum, he hoped to build a cross-party consensus around a plan for the UK to remain in the European single market.

Boles left his local Conservative association on 16 March over his stated opposition to a “no-deal” Brexit. He supported a motion to extend Article 50 (the Brexit negotiating period) on 14 March to this effect.

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Boles played a central role in the two sets of “indicative votes” held in March and April 2019. The votes came after Conservative MP Oliver Letwin effectively seized control of the House of Commons order paper.

On 25 March, Letwin tabled an amendment to a government neutral motion to suspend standing order No 14 – the rule that normally gives government business “precedence at every sitting” – to allow MPs to debate and vote on alternative Brexit paths.

Boles, alongside Labour MP Stephen Kinnock, presented motion (D), the “Common Market 2.0” or “Norway Plus” model. On 27 March, the date of the first round of indicative votes, Boles appealed to MPs to show leadership during the course of the votes.

He told the House: “Each of us today is a leader… In years to come, the question that our children and grandchildren will ask us is this: in that historic week when parliament took charge of the nation’s destiny, what did you do? Did you stand up and lead?

“Did you step forward to help reunite our country, or did you hang back in your party trench waiting to be told what to do and where to go?”

Boles said that if MPs chose “common market 2.0 this evening, the history books will record it as the moment that our country turned a corner and the part you played will be something of which you will be forever proud.”

In the end, motion (D) was rejected by 283 votes to 188. In fact, the commons failed to find a majority for any of the proposals.

As such, a second round of indicative votes was held on 1 April.

On this occasion, Boles framed his “Norway Plus” proposal as a “unity Brexit” that respected both the 52% who supported Leave in 2016 and the 48% who backed Remain. He emphasised that while it included free movement, it provided a new legal right to pull an “emergency brake… if there were major societal or economic impacts being felt by this country.”

He stated: “We are sent here to make the most difficult decisions on behalf of our constituents. If we vote for a compromise version of Brexit this evening, they will see that we are up to the job…

“Our constituents do not send us here for an easy ride or to duck difficult choices. This evening, let us live up to the words of the parliamentary prayer and, setting aside our private interests and prejudices, lead our country out of the Brexit morass.”

But Boles’ motion was defeated again by 282 votes to 261.

In the end, only 33 Conservative MPs voted for it.

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Upon the announcement of the results, Boles rose to deliver a dramatic point of order.

He declared: “I have given everything to an attempt to find a compromise that can take this country out of the European Union while maintaining our economic strength and political cohesion.

“I accept that I have failed. I have failed chiefly because my party refuses to compromise. I regret, therefore, to announce that I can no longer sit for this party.”

https://x.com/BBCBreaking/status/1112827028338688000

Boles was applauded out of the commons by the opposition benches.

From a sedentary position, a rueful-sounding Conservative MP remarked: “Oh Nick, don’t go, come on.”

In a post to Twitter (now X), Boles said he would sit as an “Independent Progressive Conservative”. He did not stand in the 2019 general election, but endorsed the Liberal Democrats.

On 5 May 2022, Boles said he had voted for the Labour Party (in the local elections) for the first time “since an equally glorious May morning in 1997.”

In February 2024, PoliticsHome reported that Boles was providing informal advice to the shadow cabinet of Keir Starmer.