New Left Foot Forward polling shows the public have turned against Brexit - a true democracy would give them a second vote.
Even though David Davis and I don’t agree on many things, we do agree on this (which he said in a speech on the EU in 2012):
“If a democracy cannot change its mind, it ceases to be a democracy.”
Davis’ infamous quote now seems more relevant than ever, as the latest poll backs a public vote if the UK secures No Deal with the EU.
The BMG Research poll for Left Foot Forward showed that a majority of the public now backs a referendum on staying in the EU, if the government fails to secure a trade deal.
The majority is even deeper amongst 18-24-year-olds: 74% back a vote and as many as two-thirds believe ‘Brexit should be stopped’.
These results are not surprising as, so far in the negotiations, Theresa May has disregarded the hopes, dreams and aspirations of 16 million citizens, including the people whose lives Brexit will affect the most: the younger generation.
75 percent of younger people voted for a different future – a future in the EU. In the weeks and months ahead, the Government’s exclusive stance needs to change.
What’s become clear is that, as the true implications of Brexit unfold, people are starting to question the Brexit decision.
A decision which will deliver none of the main promises of the ‘Leave’ campaign and cause so much damage to people’s jobs, the NHS, the economic stability of the country and the work, study and retirement opportunities of millions of people.
We now know that there won’t be an extra £350 million per week for the NHS or dozens of Free Trade Agreements ready to be signed when we leave the EU.
We also know that immigration will not be reduced to the tens of thousands, that the Government will continue to be subject to the rulings of the ECJ or other International Courts of Arbitration and that we will not have the same economic benefits outside of the EU as we currently enjoy inside.
There appears to be a growing consensus that, if we cannot stay in the EU (the Liberal Democrats still believe this is the best option for UK families and jobs), we need a deal that keeps us as close to the EU Single Market and Customs Union as possible.
Our children’s futures must not be ruined by the hallucinogenic vision of the Brexit elite who, from the safety of their stately homes or large bank balances, want to leave the EU, regardless of the damage to our economy, the lives of the ‘just about managing’ and our political standing in the world.
If David Davis meant what he said about democracy, he and the rest of the Government would let the public have control over this process.
That is why the Liberal Democrats will continue to push for the Government to give the British people the final say on the deal, with an option to ‘Exit from Brexit’ and to remain in the EU. Anything less will be a kick in the teeth for our democracy.
Tom Brake MP is the Liberal Democrats’ Spokesperson for Exiting the EU. He tweets here.
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12 Responses to “Tom Brake: Attitudes to Brexit have shifted. We need a public vote on the deal”
greg
@Boffy – Your whole tirade is based upon outsourcing democracy to Brussels because you don’t like. the government that the UK people have chosen. Why bother with Westminster at all – let’s do away with all that crosses-on-paper nonsense and simply hand over our democracy to the EU.
And, how does taking trade unions to the European Court of Justice, and prosecuting those trades unions – resulting in fines – amount to fighting for a socialist Utopia? The EU is a corporate monster – ‘state corporatism’ as fascism as one well known dictator noted – and it exploits and reduces its people to the lowest common denominator – you are deluding yourself.
@NMac – If you choose to believe that the UK people are so stupid as to take every MP’s outpourings as gospel, that is for you to do so.
In the run up to the referendum a majority of MPs in the UK parliament – including the Tories – stood on a Remain ticket: they also made it very clear that the UK was facing ‘Hell and Damnation’ if the people voted to leave.
Many Leave voters live in Labour constituencies – 70%, I believe – and were in no way in thrall to the Tories.
It does no good blaming the Tories for a decision taken by the UK population as a whole; the UK people have been kept away from any position on the EU because of a pro-EU, three party stitch-up – other than voting for UKIP, the referendum has been the only outlet for their dissatisfaction.
And they have indicated that they don’t wish to be in the European Union.
Boffy
“Your whole tirade is based upon outsourcing democracy to Brussels because you don’t like. the government that the UK people have chosen. Why bother with Westminster at all – let’s do away with all that crosses-on-paper nonsense and simply hand over our democracy to the EU.”
I may as well say that a socialist living in some leafy Tory shire County, who repeatedly fails to get a Labour administration elected is outsourcing democracy to Westminster! I might as well say why bother voting in County Council elections in such an area, and simply hand over power to Westminster. And, indeed, you may remember that when the Tories repeatedly failed to win elections in the GLC in the 1980’s, that is exactly what they did, as Thatcher simply closed down the GLC, and simultaneously via the Local Government and Land Act neutered the power of Local Government and centralised it in Whitehall!
“And, how does taking trade unions to the European Court of Justice, and prosecuting those trades unions – resulting in fines – amount to fighting for a socialist Utopia?”
It doesn’t, and I have not anywhere argued that it does. What does amount to fighting for socialism is the ability to fight alongside other EU workers for common workers rights across the EU, rather than allowing a division into national ghettos to be used as a means of beggar thy neighbour competition to drive down workers rights and standards to the lowest possible level, and which is the real motivation of the supporters of Brexit! But, again I can equally ask you how the taking of unions to Court in Britain, or how the introduction of fees even for workers to take their employer to an employment tribunal, in Britain, or the proposals of the Tories to restrict the right to strike, and so on, in any way support workers rights. Once again your willingness only to see inequality and inequity when it comes to the EU, and yet to fail to see the even more grotesque manifestation of such features in Britain, shows that you see everything through the xenophobic blinkers that restrict your outlook.
“The EU is a corporate monster – ‘state corporatism’ as fascism as one well known dictator noted – and it exploits and reduces its people to the lowest common denominator – you are deluding yourself.”
This is contradictory nonsense. Firstly, the EU is a political structure. It is far from being fascistic. It certainly could be more democratic even in terms of bourgeois democracy, but that is far from it being fascistic! It is no more, and probably less authoritarian than is the British State. Unlike, Britain for example, it does not have an hereditary head of state, or a vast unelected legislative Chamber, as exists with the House of Lords.
But, you really need to decide whether you think that the EU is “state corporatist”, or is neo-liberal, because the two things are self-excluding. What I would like you to give us is the evidence of this state corporatism, by listing for us those corporations that are in fact owned by the EU state?
And far from reducing its people to the lowest common denominator it is a powerful means of preventing precisely that. It was the fact that the EU set minimum standards that Thatcher objected to, for example, and it is in order to reduce those standards that the Brextremists now seek to take Britain out of the EU. As Marx pointed out 150 years ago, what even the capitalists require is a level playing field, and it is only when a state can impose such common regulations over a large area, that it becomes possible to establish such minimum standards, so that competition, does not act to continually cause a race to the bottom. It was only that fact, which enabled the Factory Acts to be passed in the 19th century. If different conditions were applicable in Lancashire as opposed to Yorkshire or Staffordshire, as marx describes, the necessary consequence would have been that capital would go to where the laxest standards applied, whilst continuing to sell its products into the other counties, and the result would then be that these other counties would be led to reduce their own standards, and that is precisely the situation that workers face now in competition between nation states. The answer to that is to go beyond the limitations of those nation states, and to establish a large EU state, which can enact decent minimum standards, enact enforceable tax legislation on multinational companies, and so that these companies cannot avoid, because they cannot avoid the need to operate within the world’s largest economy, which is the EU.
In response to NMac, you say,
“Many Leave voters live in Labour constituencies – 70%, I believe – and were in no way in thrall to the Tories.”
This 70% figure here is meaningless, or at best ill-defined. But, the conclusion you draw from it is even more meaningless. The fact is that even in Labour constituencies that voted Leave, the majority of Labour voters voted Remain. In fact, the proportion of Labour voters voting Leave in those constituencies was only marginally lower than in those areas like London, which voted significantly for Remain. You seem to have failed to understand that in Labour held constituencies there are Tory and UKIP voters as well as Labour voters, and it was those Tory and UKIP voters, in those Labour constituencies that voted Leave, that made up the biggest proportion of the Leave vote.
Then you say,
“And they have indicated that they don’t wish to be in the European Union.”
But, for a start, 16-17 year olds were not given a vote, UK ex pats who have lived abroad for more than 15 years were not given a vote, EU citizens living in Britain were not given a vote. In fact, only 37% of that rigged electorate voted Leave, so there was no majority for leave at all. Its why normally for such constitutional changes a tho-thirds majority is required. All the evidence shows that the electorate has changed, and its not at all clear that any majority for Leave now exists. Certainly all the evidence is that there is opposition to leaving the Customs Union and Single Market.