Cross-party Remainers have launched a campaign thinly disguised as a democratic movement which seeks a second referendum on the Brexit deal.
Supported by many of the key players in the Tony Blair-backed Remain continuity campaign Open Britain, the People’s Vote is pushing for a “public vote” on the final Brexit deal.
The movement was launched Sunday by Labour’s Chuka Umunna and Tory MP Anna Soubry as well as members of the entertainment industry, youth movements, and pro-EU academics.
Speaking to the Mail on Sunday, Umunna and Soubry said they wanted to stop a “hard Brexit” – otherwise known as a full, proper Brexit which would free the UK from the restrictive Customs Union and Single Market that prevent the country from making her own trade deals and controlling immigration.
Refusing to call it a “second referendum” in the belief that it may be possible to trick Brexiteers into thinking the People’s Vote is pushing for anything but, Umunna told the newspaper that “Going round shouting ‘Stop Brexit!’ won’t achieve anything.”
Saying that voting in favour of a “good deal” would only prove to “validate” the June 23rd, 2016, referendum, neither Soubry nor Umunna could be pinned down on whether a “no” vote would result in going back to Brussels for further negotiations or staying in the bloc altogether.
While Umunna warned leftist Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn against “aiding and abetting” a full Brexit, Soubry claimed that pro-Brexit Conservatives were veering towards “extremism”.
The pair gathered with other anti-Brexiteers at a rally at the Electric Ballroom in Camden town, London, and addressed an audience of a reported 1,200 people.
Fellow People’s Voters included Labour Peer Andrew Adonis, who joined the ‘Unholy Trinity’ for talks with Brussels Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier; Green Party leader Caroline Lucas, who said that uncontrolled, unvetted mass migration “enriches” Britain; and sci-fi actor Patrick Stewart, who said he wanted to obtain U.S. citizenship purely for the purpose of “fighting” Trump.
Speaking on Sky News, the fantasy fiction actor said that the greatest political mandate in British history was a “false one” fed on “lies” which “created an atmosphere that was toxic”, and that comic book character Charles Xavier and Star Trek’s Captain Jean-Luc Picard, both fictional personae Stewart has played, would have backed remaining in the European Union.
“There’s no doubt that Jean-Luc Picard and Charles Xavier would have voted Remain and I’ll tell you why. Because they are people who believe in the common interest. Who have always had the common interest at heart – not just the elitest few,” Sir Patrick said of the sci-fi characters.
Another superhero appeared in support of the People’s Vote, with Lord Adonis tweeting a picture of himself with EU Supergirl and self-proclaimed “professional trouble-maker” Madeleina Kay who fronted the Labour peer’s campaign to encourage young people to emotionally blackmail their elderly grandparents and relatives into reversing their support for Brexit.
During a speech to the crowd, Green Party leader Ms. Lucas said: “We will be making the case in Parliament, but this is too big and too important to be determined solely by politicians.
“So, it’s up to you. If the public demand a People’s Vote, politicians will fall in line.”
Open Britain drew up an ‘attack list’ of 20 Brexit-supporting MPs it sought to campaign to unseat at the 2017 general election in a bid to sabotage Britain’s exit from the EU.
Other groups have sought to undermine the Brexit vote, including Renew Britain, whose founder described the new anti-Brexit party as the “military arm” of the Remain movement, and Best for Britain which was accused of trying to stop Brexit by any means, including by toppling the government.
Breitbart London reported last week that billionaire progressive George Soros had pumped a total of £800,000 into Best for Britain in 2018 “for a meaningful vote on the final Brexit proposal”.