Brexit: Time to Go

by Connor Storey

On the 23rd of June, 2016, the British people decided to leave the European Union with a 52%-48% majority. However, now there is a possibility that this referendum will not be the last on the issue of Brexit. Campaigns such as “The People’s Vote” and even politicians are now demanding to have a second referendum.

On the 27th of March, 2019, parliament had up to eight different votes on ways to leave the EU. These included leaving on no deal, a second referendum and introducing a new common market with the European Union. All of the votes in parliament did not reach a majority to carry through, meaning that Parliament is still unclear on how (or even when) we leave. This has made the second referendum option more likely, which I believe would cause more harm than a no-deal Brexit in the long term.

If a second referendum occurs, the most likely question to be put back to the people is whether the UK should remain inside the EU. Let's assume that Remain wins this time (52-48). The 48% of Brexiteers will not back down as they won the first time and they will demand a third vote. This would only increase political alienation and a lack of belief in our political system. In contrast, what happens if Leave win again with a bigger majority? Does Parliament then implement Brexit or will they frustrate voters again?

Right now we are in a political and cyclical crisis. The only way to stop this agony is to accept the referendum and leave the European Union. Some Remainers might argue that we need a second vote due to the misinformation of the first. For example, Boris Johnson lied that Britain will have £350 million extra for the NHS. My reply to that would be that it was not only the Leave side that lied. George Osborne said that he will need to create a “punishment budget” if leave won and even if the UK voted to leave, unemployed will increase by 800,000 leading to a recession. None of these came true.

Interestingly, polls have been suggesting that a No-deal Brexit is more popular than a second referendum. A poll by ICM showed that a No-deal Brexit is the most popular choice with it being 3 points ahead from a second referendum.

There is no doubt that we live in divisive times and I believe a second referendum will only make this worse, so the best thing to do in this country’s crisis is to leave and to create trade deals with the rest of the world as soon as possible. This might be tough in the short term but our country survived two world wars: I’m sure we can survive Brexit.