Labour Remain Campaign Director Wants Second Referendum Even If Article 50 Is Revoked
11 August 2019, 11:40 | Updated: 11 August 2019, 11:41
The Director of campaign Labour for a Public Vote said he would not want Article 50 to be revoked without having a second referendum on Britain's membership of the EU.
Mike Buckley argued the only "democratic way forward" through the current Brexit deadlock was to have a second referendum between the two options of remaining in the European Union or a tangible real form of Brexit.
But challenged by Tom Swarbrick that it would tell people who voted for Brexit that 'their vote didn't count', Mr Buckley said everybody including leave voters "should have the chance to choose what happens to the future of our country".
"They've chosen something that is unrealisable, they chose an idealised version of Brexit that they wanted," he said.
Tom asked: "How do you know?"
Mr Buckley replied: "Because there was no real version of Brexit on the ballot, all it said was 'remain or leave', it didn't say 'how'.
"We've spent three years trying to work out how, we've been through Norway+, we've been through the Chequers agreement, we've been through Theresa May's withdrawal agreement, we're now pretty much at no-deal as the only version on the table.
"I think it's only fair you go to the country and you say to leave voters, is this the version of Brexit you want, or would you prefer to remain."
But Mr Buckley rejected the idea that calls for a second referendum would be dropped the minute Article 50 is rejected.
"The last thing I want is just to revoke Article 50 and not have a referendum," he said.
"I actually do believe in democracy, and the last thing I want is for leave voters to have voted out and for Parliament to say 'it's too hard, we're going to revoke Article 50' and not have a referendum, because then their vote hasn't counted."
Watch in full above.
