Tag: People’s Vote

The seven MPs who left Labour on Monday all cited irreconcilable differences with the party’s Brexit policy, and the way it has dealt with antisemitism and bullying allegations. Chuka Umunna in particular has been a leading figure in the People’s Vote campaign for a second referendum and led a parliamentary rebellion on an amendment to the Queen’s speech, which said the UK should remain in the single market and customs union. On almost all other domestic issues, including welfare and the economy, MPs have voted with the party whip, though Umunna, Chris Leslie, Luciana Berger, Angela Smith, Mike Gapes and Ann Coffey all voted in favour of strikes in Syria against Islamic State, the opposite way to Corbyn, although it was a free vote. Foreign affairs and national security Apart from Brexit and antisemitism, national security policy is a key difference. The group’s statement of intent says the “first duty of government must be to defend its people and do whatever it takes to safeguard Britain’s national security”. The Independent Group’s statement underlines “the sound stewardship of taxpayers’ money” as one of its core values, echoing some of the group’s early unease with Corbyn’s leadership bid. In her resignation speech, Smith cited her working-class background as a reason for her departure. It also implicitly criticises the Labour party membership system and the concept of MPs being accountable to party members. For now, the group has no name or leader for a new party, let alone policies or a manifesto. Some members of the Independent Group have their own policy ideas which they are likely to be keen to promote.

A proposed cross-party amendment to Theresa May’s Brexit plan calling for a “people’s vote” was ditched due to limited support days before Tuesday’s Commons votes. While conceding some damage, proponents insist that if May is unable to forge a consensus, the looming prospect of a no-deal Brexit could focus minds. “We know it’s often people’s second-best choice, not their first choice, so people will only come to it when other alternatives have been exhausted,” said Caroline Lucas, the Green party MP. “We’re getting closer to the moment where what will be on the table is either no deal or a people’s vote, and at that point I think we’ll see a lot more people coming in.” The campaign, which from a standing start last year managed to mobilise hundreds of thousands to march through London, has faced inflated expectations and the perhaps inevitable over-reach and disorganisation that comes from a loose alliance of several groups. The Labour leadership had been infuriated the week before when the people’s vote campaign used the day of a no-confidence motion against May’s government to unveil a new group of supportive Labour MPs at a photocall. “They’ll pat us on the back and say ‘keep going’, and you think: when the frig are you going to put your head over the parapet?” But a Labour source said campaigners had been over-hasty. If you’ve got Labour MPs who are worried about just being seen to delay Brexit, they’re not ready to back a second referendum yet.” Some Labour MPs are sceptical more generally. “Parliament cannot in all good conscience facilitate a process that could potentially lead to a referendum with no-deal on the ballot paper, because in doing so we would be playing Russian roulette with the jobs and livelihoods of our constituents,” he said. There is also Best for Britain, the semi-detached, Gina Miller-founded group which focuses on the granular work of petitioning individual MPs – more specifically, the 10 or 15 MPs each from Labour and the Conservatives seen as potentially persuadable. A source said the aim was for Fitzpatrick to receive “200 or 300 postcards a week”.

The People’s Vote campaign for a second Brexit referendum is seeking to turn French and German opinion against a “blind Brexit” under which the UK would leave the EU without certainty on the terms of a future trade deal. Two major European newspapers, Le Monde and Die Welt, have been given a YouGov poll of 10,000 Britons by the campaign group, which shows that 72% of people are opposed to a Brexit in which the details of the future deal are unclear when the UK leaves. The polling suggests that if the British public are made aware before the UK’s withdrawal on 29 March 2019 of the limited nature of the EU’s offer, and the lack of the protections for the British economy, support for a second referendum – which could keep the UK in the union – would grow. Diplomats among the EU member states are currently debating how detailed the so-called joint political declaration on the future relationship needs to be for 29 March. Some voices, including key figures in the European commission, believe a vague and aspirational declaration, which does not rule out the UK’s demands for the future, despite Brussels’ complete opposition to many of them, would be the safest way to avoid a no-deal scenario. The People’s Vote campaign – which was boosted in August by a record £1m donation from the multimillionaire Julian Dunkerton, who co-founded the Superdry fashion label – is focusing on polling in order to convince key decision-makers that the UK’s withdrawal is not certain. She has described the free trade deal that the EU would probably offer when negotiations start in earnest during the transition period as unacceptable. According to the YouGov poll, the threat of a blind Brexit unites both leave and remain voters. It suggests that 65% of leave voters oppose it, rising to 86% of remain voters who think it is important to know the terms and consequences of Brexit before a final decision to leave the EU is made. “Whether people backed leave or remain, nobody voted for this mess.