Why Labour should not have supported Brexit

Jon Danzig | 29 September 2021

A reader commented that the result of the referendum was clear, and Labour was right to support it.

I disagree.

The result of the referendum was not clear, and Leave only won by lying and law-breaking on an industrial scale.

Brexit has gone ahead on the say-so of a mere 37% of the electorate and many people directly impacted by the referendum result were denied a vote.

That is not democracy.

If the referendum had been a legally binding vote, instead of just an advisory poll, the courts would have annulled the result as compromised and unsafe.

Parliament was supposed to have been given an opportunity after the referendum to properly assess (impact reports etc), debate and vote on the specific question of WHETHER the UK SHOULD leave the EU.

However, the Tory government refused that opportunity to Parliament, saying the decision had already been made by the referendum – a referendum that the Supreme Court confirmed was not capable of making any decision.

I explained more in my article, ‘Who made the decision to leave the EU?’.

Nobody in the referendum voted for a version of Leave, and the hard Tory Brexit now imposed on the country does not have a democratic mandate.

Labour should not have supported any of this.

They should have called for a proper assessment of Leave before we went ahead with it and pressed for a confirmatory referendum on what kind of Brexit the country could have, if any.

Labour has, instead, supported a fraudulent and flawed referendum, and facilitated a harsh Brexit on Britain that is causing our country and its citizens severe harm.

Labour should have distanced itself from ALL of this.