Remainer Femi Oluwole Goes Head-To-Head With Brexiter Gisela Stuart Over Second Referendum

20 September 2019, 11:54

This is what happened when Remain campaigner Femi Oluwole went head-to-head with Brexiter Gisela Stuart over a second referendum.

Femi Oluwole, co-founder of Our Future Our Choice, said if you put deal versus no deal on the ballot paper, “that means you’ve accepted that the variations of Brexit are so vast that constitute a referendum in and of themselves.”

Iain proposed a "two question referendum: Leave versus remain, and then if Leave wins the second question is deal or no deal.”

Femi said that 52% voted for Brexit which means that 48% “don’t want the relationship that’s resulted from Brexit”, so by doing a second referendum between deal and no deal, that just determines what the 52% majority want. And that’s not going to be an overall majority.”

Femi continued that if this was the situation, “you’d still be entitled to vote, but it wouldn’t have been your first choice. So you’d only end up getting the first choice of a majority of a majority.”

Gisela interrupted the co-founder of Our Future Our Choice to say, “You’ve illustrated the problem which we’re facing: the assumption that those who voted to remain all think the same thing. But the Leavers, you’re questioning.”

“Just ask yourself: can you think of any other profession where you spend three years wringing your hands and saying the job is too difficult and someone doesn’t hand you your P45? Because that’s essentially what’s been happening with Parliament.” “If you want a new referendum, Femi, MPs will have to pass legislation.”

Legislation, Gisela said, that she can’t see members of Parliament agreeing on, given the ongoing divisiveness. “We’d have another two years of them saying ‘What are the terms of this going to be?’”

For the economy, she continued, “if the thing that is most damaging is uncertainty, which has been dragging on for three years, do you really think it would be the best thing to go on dragging on uncertainty?”

Watch the latest Cross Question with Iain Dale here.