May’s team says ‘no’ to another poll
LONDON: Theresa May’s team pushed back against reports that they were warming to a second referendum on Brexit as the UK prime minister prepared to face a testy Parliament overnight, NZ time.
David Lidington, May’s effective deputy, and chief of staff Gavin Barwell said they did not favour another vote, after news papers reported they’d held talks on the issue. May criticised former Prime Minister Tony Blair for championing a ‘‘People’s Vote’’.
‘‘For Tony Blair to go to Brussels and seek to undermine our negotiations by advocating for a second referendum is an insult to the office he once held and the people he once served,’’ May said in a statement released by her office. ‘‘We cannot, as he would, abdicate responsibility for this decision.’’
Speculation has intensified about a second referendum on leaving the European Union since May withdrew a House of Commons vote on her deal with the EU when it became clear it was headed for defeat. May then survived a bid by her own lawmakers to unseat her as leader of the Conservative Party. She is running out of options as time runs short for clinching a deal with the EU.
May was due to face a hostile House of Commons — and further calls for another referendum — overnight after her appeals for help from EU leaders were rejected at a summit in Brussels on Saturday.
The idea of a national vote is gaining traction with both those who hope it would stop the UK from leaving the EU and those who see it as a threat that will bring Brexit supporters behind May’s plan.
The opposition Labour Party said it would press for May’s
deal to face a vote in Parliament this month and was still considering the best time to submit a noconfidence motion against the Government to enhance its chances of winning a majority in the House of Commons.
‘‘We’ve been assessing on a daily basis the time we would achieve a successful outcome,’’ Rebecca LongBailey, the party’s business spokesman, told Sky News. ‘‘What we want is an outcome rather than it just being a bit of parliamentary drama.’’
Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon said she thought that a confidence motion against the Government could succeed in parliament, piling pressure on the main opposition Labour Party to trigger such a vote.
‘‘I think it is possible that a confidence motion right now could succeed. This is a government that is weak and unstable and becoming more weak and unstable with every day that passes,’’ she said.
Labour would do all it can to force the Government to bring a vote on May’s Brexit deal to parliament this week, its election coordinator Andrew Gwynne said.— Bloomberg News/Reuters
❛ . . . an insult to the office he once held and the people he once
served
THE precipice of a nodeal Brexit looms ever closer. The ruling Conservative Party and the Cabinet are split every which way, and Labour, the main opposition, continues to peddle the fantasy that a better deal to leave the European Union is possible.
Prime Minister Theresa May is humiliated and next to nobody wants her EU deal, a phoney Brexit in the eyes of hardliners and the worst of both worlds in the view of others. The approval rating for how Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn is handling Brexit, meanwhile, is much worse than even Mrs May’s.
The public, in the face of all this, are confused, exasperated and concerned. Mrs May and the Conservatives are not up to the job, and neither is Labour. Brexit dominates public discourse as Britain blunders on.
In such an impossible position, calls grow for a second referendum. And, despite the difficulties a second poll poses, that is what should occur.
Reports at the weekend suggested Mrs May’s team was warming to the idea. But a statement from her office said ‘‘we cannot . . . abdicate responsibility for this decision’’. One claim from the leadership is that a further referendum would divide the country and another is that it would threaten faith in democracy.
It must be remembered how badly tainted the first vote was. ProBrexiters blatantly lied about the EU, made totally unrealistic promises and Facebook information was stolen and used to play up xeno phobia. This went well beyond the expected rough and tumble, exaggerations and obfuscations of normal politics.
It is true another vote would be complex and demanding. It would take months to have everything in place and just what questions would be asked and how votes would be counted could be a tall order. A looming EU election in May could also complicate matters. There are legitimate fears, too, that another poll would provide an excuse for rioting and disorder.
As well, an indecisive majority either way would leave matters unsettled. Would there then be a call for a third vote? ‘‘Neverendum’’ perhaps, as some are calling it.
At least, the act of Brexiting would be able to be suspended. Britain, it has been established, does not need EU approval to call off its foolishness. As it is, leave day on March 29 looms fast. Much more effort will have to go towards what happens if, as seems increasing a likely option, Britain crashes out of the EU. Most mainstream analysts see this as dire.
As that day approaches, one possibility is that Mrs May’s unsatisfactory Brexit deal will win enough support across Parliament in desperation votes to avoid the disastrous no deal at all scenario.
Far better than going to this brink and perhaps over it is to give the British people the chance to reverse their mistake. The stakes are towering, and this is what needs to happen.