Should Sir Keir Starmer hold a new Brexit referendum? - Yorkshire Post Letters

Should Sir Keir Starmer hold a new Brexit referendum? It appeared to be ruled out by him before the General Election (Labour ‘has no plans to rejoin EU’, insists Starmer - TYP, June 24).

But the ‘vast majority’ who did vote Labour on July 4 do support rejoining the European Union or Single Market (Poll: Voters oppose Brexit red lines, TYP, July 12).

The party’s current position “does not reflect what Labour’s voting base and the public at large wish,” says Mike Galsworthy, chair of European Movement UK.

Sir Keir Starmer dismissed the idea even after it was pointed out that many young adults with a vote in the General Election were too young to have one at the time of the 2016 referendum.

The ‘nature’ of one-off referendums is only the electorate at the time has a say, Sir Keir maintained.

But that’s why such referendums involving important constitutional matters - such as Brexit - usually have a high bar or ‘supermajority’ requirement built into them. That was absent from the one David Cameron called in 2016.

Brexit campaigner and former Tory minister Steve Baker said he wished there’d been a 60 per cent minimum - pointing to the turmoil created by the narrow 52/48 result.

Nigel Farage told the Daily Mirror before the referendum (May 17, 2016): “A 52-48 referendum would be unfinished business by a long way. If the Remain campaign wins two-thirds to a third, that ends it.”

Mr Farage meant “unfinished business” if Leave had lost. But even he was acknowledging a decisive majority was needed to “end it”.

Plus, the Conservative Party changed the law so anyone who left the UK more than 15 years ago can now vote here.

The Financial Times (June 15) says that’s added another 2.3 million potential voters.

“Probably 80 or 90 per cent of them would have voted against Brexit,” a Costa del Sol solicitor serving expats told the FT.

“Now we’re allowed to vote again, but it’s too late.”

Labour wants to further widen the electorate - reducing the voting age to 16. Then there’s those Leave voters dismayed at the lies they were told and what’s been done - allegedly - in their name.

The validity and legitimacy of the 2016 result continues to diminish - even if you ignore “multiple breaches of electoral law” by Leave.EU (The Electoral Commission website, October 11, 2019) and suspected foreign interference (“UK took its eye off the ball over Russia - report says impossible to tell if Kremlin meddled with 2016 referendum, TYP front page, July 22 2020).

After his meeting last week with the US President, Sir Keir can be in no doubt that the strongest possible relationship with European allies is vital to maintaining Britain’s position globally (You are the transatlantic knot that binds us, Biden tells new Prime Minister - TYP, July 12). Anything short of full EU membership is second best.