Breitbart London Editor in Chief Raheem Kassam has broken with Brexit campaign leader Nigel Farage over his “warming” towards a second referendum on EU membership, to silence Remainer saboteurs.
“We voted, as you know, for Brexit, on the 23rd of June 2016,” the former adviser to Farage explained to listeners on Breitbart News Daily, in a segment which can be listened to in full below.
“We voted to Leave the European Union, get our sovereignty back, get immigration controls back, get the rule of law back… and since then, we’ve had a government that is run by people who campaigned to Remain in the EU effectively trying to thwart or slow-roll this process,” he continued.
“And today, Nigel Farage went on television to stave off people saying there’s ‘Bregret’, and the United Kingdom wouldn’t vote in the same way if it voted today, and said: ‘I think it absolutely would, it would vote in a greater measure to Leave the European Union today than it did in 2016.’
“And, therefore, he’s open to suggestions of another straight-up Remain or Leave referendum.”
“I don’t break from Nigel very often, but I’m not in favour of that,” Kassam continued.
Kassam did concede that the Member of the European Parliament might well be right that the margin of victory could be even greater for Brexit the second time around, based on polling which shows a collapse in support for the EU over the last year.
“But the point is, we had a referendum,” explained the Breitbart London boss.
“The people spoke, and no matter what Tony Blair says, no matter what Theresa May says, no matter what Barack Obama says — I couldn’t give a monkey’s what any of those people think in a post-referendum world.
“Because the people are sovereign in the United Kingdom — as they are in the United States — and they already laid out what they want to happen.”
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Kassam also voiced concerns that a second referendum would only provide the establishment — less complacent after its 2016 defeat — with an opportunity to work even harder to rig the result than it did the first time.
“In 2016, the establishment tried to cheat,” he reminded listeners. “It spent £10 million of taxpayer money to physically mail out leaflets to every single household in the country to convince them to vote Remain — and, sure enough, the Leave side were not afforded such a privilege.
He added: “I’m certain that the establishment has learned enough lessons about how to tackle us, and how to cheat the system, that if we had another referendum they would roll out every cheat, every trick, every measure in the book.”
Kassam noted, for example, that the government is already extending the franchise to some three million Brits who have lived abroad for more than 15 years, many of whom are based in the EU and sympathetic to Remaining in it, purely out of concern about their personal circumstances.
“So, because I think they’ll try and stitch it up, I’m not in favour of it, and — I hate to say it — I think Nigel’s wrong on this one.”
The UK Independence Party’s current leadership seems to be in agreement with Kassam, with party leader Henry Bolton saying UKIP remains opposed to a rerun.
“I am convinced that the Leave side would win a second referendum, should one be held, with an even larger majority than before,” he said.
“Many remain voters can now see that the campaign led by the then Prime Minister and Chancellor as deliberately misleading. We have also seen greater investment and growth in a number of sectors since the summer of 2016.
“Nonetheless, to hold such a referendum would be to call into question the decisive importance of the largest democratic exercise ever held by this country and the unambiguous mandate the people gave the government on that day — the mandate take us out of the European Union.
“Such a second referendum would set a precedent for revisiting any democratic decision made in future; it would undermine the fabric of our democratic principles and would weaken the clarity and effectiveness of democratic decision.
“A second referendum would be damaging to the nation.”