CALLING for a second referendum into the UK’s membership of the European Union is “playing with fire” a former Newport MP has warned.

Alan Howarth, now Lord Howarth, was Newport East MP from 1997 until 2005 and spoke during the first day of the House of Lords’ scrutiny of the so-called Brexit Bill on Monday.

The bill was developed after the Supreme Court ruled both MPs and Lords had to be consulted before Article 50, which begins the process of leaving the EU, can be triggered.

Although peers can theoretically block the bill, Lord Howarth, who voted for the UK to leave the EU, said the result of last June’s referendum should be respected.

“If we do not, public disaffection from politics will become a crisis,” he said. “Those who meditate a second referendum are playing with fire.

“Besides, the deal will not be a binary constitutional choice appropriate for a referendum, but a complex set of policy proposals.”

Saying the government was “foolish” to attempt to enact Article 50 without consulting Parliament, the Labour peer said the delay caused by the Supreme Court hearing had meant there was now less time to properly scrutinise the plans.

And he said attention should be paid to “healing the wounds opened up by the referendum”.

“It is no way to reunite the country to introduce new grammar schools, slam the door in the face of child refugees, use EU residents as bargaining chips and threaten to turn Britain into an offshore tax haven,” he said.

Saying “democracy has been trampled upon by the hierarchs of the EU”, Lord Howarth said he believed the UK would benefit as a result of leaving Europe.

And he called for both sides of the debate to work together to restore faith in politicians.

“The referendum was both a great exercise in democracy and a low point in politics,” he said.

“Both campaigns were conducted without scruple, weaponised disinformation on the one side, alternative facts on the other.

“No wonder people think politicians are all liars.

“We need to rehabilitate politics.”

If peers do not attempt to make and changes to the bill, which is just 137 words long, it could become law as soon as next month.

But if they do it will have to return to the House of Commons to again be scrutinised by MPs in the so called ‘ping-pong’ process.