It’s time to talk about the People’s Vote
Why is there a sudden emphasis to ‘Get Brexit Done’?
There is nothing particularly surprising about the fact that Brexit keeps surfacing and hijacking the political headlines. It was after all, arguably, the United Kingdom’s biggest and most historic constitutional practise. Not just because of the extensive voter turnout and the significant democratic expression of what the nation wanted, but because of the complex political and economic ramifications it threatens and the deep divisions it created.
Hence, when details emerged about a controversial Internal Market Bill which overrides parts of the European Union’s legal divorce deal, there were deep misgivings about it. When several senior Conservative Party MP’s expressed concerns and all five living former prime ministers criticised it, there was a feeling of groundhog day and a return to the Brexit impasse that had become all too familiar. Even with Britain mired by a global pandemic, Brexit managed to steal the spotlight.
What usually followed even the slightest Brexit development was bickering and wrangling between the camp that ardently wanted Brexit settled under any circumstances against the camp that believed Brexit was a catastrophic error and a recipe for devastation which needed undoing. Except this time there was something different. In a startling turn of events, figures who previously vehemently opposed Brexit and everything it entailed were suddenly on board with the idea that the procedure needed to be accomplished and the nation needed to move on.
Rachel Reeves is a notable example. In mid-September on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, the Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster emphasised that her and her party would be voting against the bill. She then sent a message to the government, demanding they ‘Get Brexit done, get a deal, and concentrate please on getting control of this virus.’
But it was only last year that she was on BBC Radio 4 expressing that a second Brexit referendum was paramount. In fact, that was her firm stance for a considerable period. In 2018 she wrote an article in The Yorkshire Post titled ‘Why I’m backing a People’s Vote on any Brexit deal’. In a separate interview in 2018 with PoliticsHome, she reiterated her preference for a second referendum, and even went further by saying the Labour Party should campaign to Remain. Despite being the MP for Leeds West, an area which staunchly voted to Leave, her appetite for a People’s Vote and her flagrant dismissal of the 2016 referendum result was unmistakable.
Seemingly, it is now Labour’s approach to shelve any opposition to Brexit. The leader Keir Starmer’s recent sentiments illustrate this. Writing in the Sunday Telegraph recently, he accused the Conservative’s and particularly the prime minister Boris Johnson of ‘reigniting old rows’ and instead urged him to ‘get on with Brexit and defeat the virus’.
Again, that is a staggering U-turn. It was Starmer who was a key architect when the demand for a People’s Vote in the Labour Party and nationwide heightened. He made several interventions as Shadow Brexit Secretary underscoring the importance of a second referendum and perpetually reinforced the idea that Remain had to be on the ballot paper.
Observers suggest his changed stance is part of his wider strategy to win back the working-class Labour heartlands in the red wall who underwent the once unimaginable endeavour of voting for the Tories in December’s disastrous election.
But it should not have taken a cataclysmic election defeat to realise that the Labour foundation was going to crumble if the wishes of the people were ignored.
As Starmer stood up during Labour’s annual conference in 2018 and insisted ‘nobody is ruling out Remain as an option’, then MP for Bolsover, Dennis Skinner, is pictured shaking his head. The veteran parliamentarian often referred to as the ‘Beast of Bolsover’, was the MP for the overwhelmingly Leave voting town since 1970 but lost his seat to the Conservatives in 2019. His facial expression as Starmer helped consolidate Labour’s lurch towards being the party of Remain should have been enough for the People’s Vote brakes to be slammed and the process to be halted. Yet nothing of the sort materialised and instead the pressure was sustained.
Therefore, the idea that Starmer can suddenly flip a switch and become a Brexit pioneer — after spending so long being the figurehead for a People’s Vote and Remain — in the hope Labour’s once historically committed voters will swiftly return, is contestable.
What is even more bizarre is that branches of the media are endorsing Labour’s new strategy. Following Starmer’s article in the Sunday Telegraph, The Observer’s policy editor, Michael Savage, tweeted that Starmer’s new approach demonstrated ‘Labour has understood how to stop losing’.
The party’s new Brexit policy is to accept the 2016 referendum result and effectively see out the process. Given this was the precise policy during Starmer’s predecessor’s 2017 election, which was then described by Savage’s newspaper in an editorial as ‘shambolic’ and ‘politically unsustainable’, some disingenuity is evidently at play.
Indeed, Labour accepting the referendum result once prompted the BBC’s Emily Maitlis to allege the party was ‘ideologically wedded to Brexit’.
However, recent polls have displayed a gradual erosion of Tory support being synonymous with a steady Labour revival, which have been used to justify and vindicate Starmer’s changing Brexit narrative. In the latest Opinium poll for the Observer, Starmer’s Labour have leapfrogged Johnson’s Conservatives. Yet it is only a slender three-point lead they possess. Thus, when polls emerge and are followed by satirical ‘Labour should be 20 points ahead’ gibes, that is not indicative of the petty nature of the so called Corbynite cultists.
They are merely judging Starmer using the same preposterous standards the moderate Westminster contingent judged Jeremy Corbyn with. From broadcasters like James O’Brien to former ministers like Tony Blair, the absurd notion that Labour should be racing 20 points clear in the polls was disseminated frequently. For each poll that emerged which did not reflect those unrealistic expectations, the idea that Corbyn’s Labour were helpless only intensified. That a YouGov tracker shows between July 2019 and February 2020, Corbyn was consistently viewed as incompetent by at least 61% of the public fortifies this.
Failing to adopt the sole policy the public allegedly desired only compounded the party’s reputation, no matter the Brexit inclination, and effectively spelt the end of a Labour party that promised wholesale change.
So, what seismic occurrence in the Brexit landscape transpired which provoked those with previously uncompromising stances to shift?
The reality is nothing has changed. Boris Johnson’s Conservatives are still ruling with an iron fist and are still willing to plunge into the abyss with no deal. The attrition between Remainers and Leavers is also still present.
Only the leader of the opposition has changed. Could it be that those in favour of a more moderate opposition party, deplored a socially democratic political presence and concurrently knew actively dismissing the referendum result and subsequently condemning the Labour party to electoral misery, have achieved their goal?
Footage shows a number of ‘centrist’ Labour MP’s were visibly displeased when the 2017 election exit poll emerged. This apace with the liberal commentator Frances Weetman’s recent article in the Independent demanding a Labour purge of the left, indicates such suggestions are not unreasonable.
