STROUD MP Neil Carmichael has been listed as one of 40 parliamentary candidates to support in a cross-party strategy aimed at opposing a ‘hard Brexit’.

Published by Open Britain together with European Movement and Britain for Europe, the campaign identifies Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green candidates ‘who oppose hard Brexit’ for their members to support in the June election.

A list of 40 key seats have been initially been published with 20 identified, including Stroud, as seats to defend and 20 others they aim to oust the incumbent in favour of a more pro-European candidate.

Mr Carmichael campaigned for a ‘remain’ vote in the run-up to last year’s EU referendum and this has led to him being listed as a candidate to keep in place in the campaign’s strategy.

The move has drawn criticism from the constituency’s Liberal Democrat candidate Max Wilkinson as Mr Carmichael voted in favour of triggering Article 50, beginning the process to leave the EU, earlier this year.

Mr Wilkinson said: “Warm words about the EU are all very well, but when it came to the crunch Neil Carmichael changed his mind and voted with the hard Brexit Tories to trigger Article 50.

“I have a lot of respect for Neil’s historic support for close ties with Europe, but I’m afraid he’s failed his constituents who voted remain as well as those who voted leave but don’t want a hard Brexit.

“If I’m elected as Stroud MP, I’ll stick to my principles and not sell them out to the whip’s office.”

Mr Carmichael was unavailable for comment at the time the Gazette went to print.