Apparently having failed to learn the lesson of her party being trounced in the polls by Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party, British Prime Minister Theresa May has further distanced herself from the British public by setting the process in motion for a second referendum.
Making her pitch to Parliament Tuesday afternoon to pass her thrice-rejected Withdrawal Agreement when it is put before the house for a fourth time next month, embattled British Prime Minister offered a second referendum as a bribe to buy votes from her political colleagues.
Among ardent remainers who do not intend to see the results of the first Brexit referendum honoured, a second vote is the preferred method of choice to overturn the original decision and see Brexit cancelled for good. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has been calling for a second referendum to cancel the first since 2016.
Speaking in Westminster, the Prime Minister said:
I have also listened carefully for those who have argued for a second referendum. I have made my own view on this clear many times. I do not believe this is a route we should take because I think we should be implementing the result of the first referendum, not asking the British people to vote in a second one.
But I recognise the genuine and sincere strength of feeling across the House on this important issue. The government will, therefore, include in the withdrawal agreement bill at introduction a requirement to vote on whether to hold a second referendum, and this must take place before the withdrawal agreement can be ratified. And if the House of Commons were to vote for a referendum, it would be requiring the government to make provisions for such a referendum including legislation if it wanted to ratify a withdrawal agreement.
So to those MPs who want a second referendum to confirm the deal, you need a deal and therefore a withdrawal agreement bill to make it happen. So let it have its second reading, and then make your case to Parliament.
While May’s comments merely open the way for Parliament to vote on whether to have a second referendum, the political arithmetic in an overwhelmingly pro-EU House of Commons is such that if given the opportunity, Parliament will almost certainly impose a second referendum on the country. The offer breaks PM May’s previous comments that a second referendum would “break faith with the British people”, and would “irreparable damage” to faith in democracy.
British voters were told their decision in the 2016 referendum, whichever way they voted, would be final and enacted by the government.
May’s move towards a softer yet approach to Brexit and giving aid to pro-remain wreckers who would see the largest democratic exercise in British history overturned, seems to reveal a significant disconnect between the United Kingdom’s political leadership and the voting public. The latest polling shows the British public willing to back the newly formed Brexit Party, which is campaigning solely on taking the United Kingdom out of the European Union without a deal, exiting on World Trade Organisation terms.
Breitbart London reported this month on polling for Thursday’s national election to select Members of the European Parliament, when the Brexit Party came first with 35 per cent. Theresa May’s soft Brexit Conservatives polled just nine per cent, putting them in fifth place. Even polling for the yet to be announced general election is grim reading for May, where despite a longstanding habit of voters shifting back towards mainstream parties for Westminster, the Brexit Party is still polling ahead of the Conservatives.
This story is developing and more follows
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