Welsh voters reject the stance taken by Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood and SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon.
Welsh voters reject the stance taken by Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood and SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon
A majority of voters in Wales do not believe the nations should have a veto in any future referendum on membership of the EU, according to a new poll.
With David Cameron pledged to hold a vote on the UK’s membership of the European Union by at least 2017, Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon has argued that the UK should not be allowed to withdraw from the EU if the UK votes yes but Scotland votes no.
Her arguments have also been shared by Plaid Cymru in Wales. Writing for the Huffington Post two years ago, the party’s leader Leanne Wood called for the results of the referendum to be broken down by nation.
“An English vote for exit,” she said “should not – by dint of sheer numbers – be able to trump a desire in Wales to stay in.”
Against this backdrop, a poll by Beaufort for research for the Western Mail has found that 55 per cent of Welsh voters feel that an overall majority across the UK in favour of leaving the EU would be sufficient to leave. A third (32 per cent) feel the UK should only leave if a majority of voters in each nation vote to do so.
The remaining 13 per cent didn’t give an opinion.
In November, Welsh first minister Carwyn Jones said that proposals to give the nations an effective veto in a referendum were “worth considering”.
In 2013, polling by Beaufort again for the Western mail found that 37 per cent of people in Wales would vote to leave the EU while just 29 per cent would vote to stay in.
The findings come against a backdrop of a growing UKIP presence in Wales. In last year’s European Parliamentary Elections the party polled over 27.5 per cent of the votes cast, coming a narrow second behind Labour.
Ed Jacobs is a contributing editor to Left Foot Forward. Follow him on Twitter
7 Responses to “Welsh voters reject idea of national veto in EU referendum”
Gary Scott
“Welsh voters reject..”. Well, not quite. This was a poll not a referendum. The very fact that this has been raised should be a red flag. This points out the democratic deficit at Westminster and the fact that a minority, fringe party like UKIP has, for some reason been allowed to dominate the political agenda. Why is a fringe party included in debates, why has Nigel Farage been on Question Time nearly twenty times? Why have parties such as Plaid Cymru, The Greens and SNP been deliberately excluded when they have more support than UKIP? UKIP is a phenomena created by the media for the media. UKIPs support increased as a direct result of more exposure on the BBC. The SNP have vastly increased their support in spite of no exposure on the BBC. Who is deciding what we hear, and why?
robertcp
I agree with Welsh voters. Wales is part of the UK and should abide by UK-wide decisions.
littleoddsandpieces
It was an EU Directive that imposed raising the retirement age on all EU member states.
It was the EU that reached into EU indebted nations internal government and took the pensions from all sources, not only the state pension and cut pensions even to those of a great age.
It is the EU that has ignored the UK causing starvation deaths by welfare and pension reform to all ages, including those 60 and over who half are within the working poor and majority reason not in work due to disability / chronic illness and those benefits being entirely lost more and more.
Over 60s denied state pension since 2013 are equally liable to the slavery of workfare and benefit sanctions months long, when it takes on average about a month to starve to death. Even if they are disabled and / or chronic sick.
The EU government is not investigating early deaths caused by austerity in the UK, which has been postponed until after the general election. Why?
Because the EU’s own austerity is killing people by hunger and suicide every day, for all ages from babies to grannies. Just as it is in the UK.
The EU demands on indebted nations curtail employment rights and destroy any hope of an economic recovery for a century into the future and more.
And the money paid in contributions by the UK taxpayer to the EU government and the cost of MEPs’ salaries and huge expenses, could pay for more staff and facilities to the Accident and Emergencies that are decaring major incidents in NHS hospitals all over the country now it is winter. Private healthcare does not provide emergency care.
Belonging to the EU leaves the UK liable to the same economic abyss that will happen when all the indebted EU member states all default on debt 100 per cent, because their economies will have disappeared altogether.
But there was in the UK a socialist party that knew the truth about austerity and the EU, the No2EU party that never got any media coverage because the trade unions did not back it, despite it being endorsed by the late lamented Wedgwood Benn.
It is a shame that parties like the Greens, Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru do not wipe UKIP out, by taking on the policies that were the No2EU party.
But left wing parties will not win votes by going on about Europe. This is a general election about food and fuel survival every day for millions of people here in the UK, in all the nations of the UK.
The old, the over 60s, half and more in abject poverty in or out of work, denied state pension payout since 2013, when this is sitting pretty ring fenced and wrongly being called a surplus since 2013 in the National Insurance Fund, are the best bet to get a socialist party into a majority government in London Westminster.
The party offering to repeal the Pension Bills 2010-2014 and the flat rate pension will gain the votes of women born from 1953 and men born from 1951 that are the last who bother to keep registered on the electoral roll and come out to vote.
This offers to us not to be left in penniless starvation forever in old age.
See who loses from the flat rate pension (over 80 per cent)
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/state-pension-at-60-now
uglyfatbloke
Well put Gary.
CGR
We are the UK. The powers of the Welsh and Scottish assemblies are simply devolved from London and not their own. Long may it remain so.