You're listening to a podcast from the BBC World Service. This is Hard Talk with me, Stephen Sacker.

Thanks for downloading this edition of the programme. I do hope you enjoy it.

Brexit is testing the durability of Britain's political and constitutional conventions.

Three years after the British people voted by 52% to 48 to leave the European Union, Brexit still hasn't happened.

The political atmosphere has been soured by a poisonous mix of anger, mistrust and recrimination.

During the summer, Boris Johnson replaced the hapless Theresa May as Prime Minister

with a pledge to deliver Brexit come what may by October the 31st.

But the looming possibility of a no-deal Brexit has seen his Conservative Party fragment

and Parliament pass legislation to tie his hands. My guest today was until February

a Conservative MP, but then Heidi Allen quit the party and co-founded a new centrist pro-remain

grouping committed to changing Britain's political direction. The venture never really took off. The anti-Brexit political forces in the UK

are still struggling to find common ground and a coherent strategy. Can that be changed before the

Brexiteers achieve their longed-for goal? Well, Heidi Allen joins me now. Welcome to Hard Talk. Thank you.

You quit a Conservative Party seven months ago. You clearly wanted to change the dynamic of the Brexit

debate in the United Kingdom. Seven months on, are you ready to say that you failed? To be honest, I mean, Brexit

was the catalyst that drew us together, those of us that jumped at the same time from both

Labour and Conservative. But I think we all had slightly different reasons as well. For me,

it was just I couldn't tolerate any more being associated with a Conservative brand. I had deep

concerns about the welfare state and the way that the government were rolling out the new benefit system. So for me, it was more about the party had changed and not one I could represent, but you're right, Brexit was a big part of it. It seemed to be because you, in essence, said then what quite a number of Tories have said since, which is that you feared the party was beginning to look like the Brexit party. Absolutely. It pushed all the way to the right. And yeah, it feels like we were trendsetters in hindsight now.

But I come back to the right. And yeah, it feels like we were

trendsetters in hindsight now. But I come back to that point about what changed as a result of

what you did, because what we have now is a prime minister in place, obviously since you left the party,

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