‘Will of the people’ argument is no longer credible

AN OPEN letter to Cheadle MP Bill Cash: We are set to leave the EU with no trade deal in place. No one voted for a blindfold Brexit.

While I do not live in the Cheadle constituency, I would like to respond to your ‘grandstanding’ attack on the leader of the opposition, Jeremy Corbyn, the Shadow Chancellor and the Shadow Brexit Secretary, Sir Keir Starmer in the Post & Times’s October edition.

If this divisive rhetoric is all you have to offer at such a crucial time in the debate about the Government’s proposals to leave the European Union, then clearly you have a low opinion of the intelligence of the electorate.

The best deal with the EU is the deal we already have. And the Government has failed to deliver the promised ‘deal.’

The Government’s own impact studies show that withdrawal from the EU has absolutely no benefits to offer in terms of the national interest. So how can anyone be accused of making a mockery of a referendum result achieved by a slender majority, as a result of a pack of lies and broken promises, and even possibly law breaking by the Leave campaign?

Your constituents deserve better quality discourse. Why do you think that a newly independent UK (whatever that means) would need to cut taxes to free up entrepreneurs and risk takers and the economy needs to be flexible to make the most of new trading opportunities?

To some, this is code for a ‘bonfire’ of regulations and lower standards of protection for workers’ rights.

You threaten us with your interpretation of Jeremy Corbyn’s brand of socialism, while supporting a Government that is already ‘under notice’ that future investment will be at risk, for example, in UK manufacturing engineering in the motor car and aerospace sectors.

And you are supporting a proposition that would ensure more years of continuing political infighting as different factions in Parliament try to promote rival visions – keep Northern Ireland guessing over whether there would be border controls in the Irish Sea; cripple our economy with yet more uncertainty; and voters will have to put up with a blindfold Brexit.

For those Post & Times readers, who like me, are dismayed by this Government, this is nothing like the “exact same benefits” put to the electorate in 2016. The idea that the current deal represents the ‘will of the people’ is no longer credible.

It is now time for the Government to accept the fact that it would be wrong to push through a compromised package, which satisfies neither the Leavers nor the Remainers. The only course of action now is to suspend the withdrawal process and prepare for another referendum in 2019.

This would be presented to the country as an opportunity to think again in the light of the body of evidence we now have available as to the consequences of leaving the European Union.

This third referendum would be a vote based on truth and reconciliation, rather than emotional propaganda that bedevilled the Brexit vote. Mike Ottewell Chair, Staffs 4 Europe, Cheddleton