Rally to call for an EU deal vote
LIBERAL DEMOCRAT LEADER TO ATTEND
Political Editor CAMPAIGNERS backing a ‘People’s Vote’ on the Brexit deal are to stage a rally in Newcastle this weekend.
Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable and Labour MPs including Sedgefield MP Phil Wilson will attend the event to call for a referendum on the final Brexit deal agreed between the EU and the UK – if there is one.
It follows the success of the People’s Vote march in London in June, when more than 100,000 people took part. Tomorrow’s event at the Assembly Rooms in Newcastle will be a smaller-scale affairand organisers say they expect attendance to be in the hundreds.
Representatives from industries likely to be affected by Brexit will be attending, including NHS staff and teachers.
The UK is set to leave the EU on March 29 but it is still unclear what sort of arrangements will be in place after Brexit takes place.
Some employers have warned that they need continued access to the EU single market and customs union.
Secretary of State for the Department for Exiting the EU, Dominic Raab has delivered a speech outlining the preparations being made for the UK quitting the EU without any deal at all.
Although the Government says it is confident of agreeing a deal, he will say: “We must be ready to consider the alternative. We have a duty, as a responsible government, to plan for every eventuality.”
The Government is to publish a series of ‘technical notices’ explaining to employers and people in general what they can expect if no deal is agreed.
It has been reported that this could include providing emergency power supplies to Northern Ireland, which would no longer be able to import energy from Ireland, making plans to deal with a huge queues at UK ports and stockpiling medicines for the NHS.
Mr Raab will say: “These technical notices – and the ones which will follow – are a sensible, measured,and proportionate approach to minimising the impact of no deal on British firms, citizens, charities and public bodies. They will provide information and guidance.
“Our overarching aim is to facilitate the smooth, continued, functioning of business, transport, infrastructure, research, aid programmes and funding streams.”