Labor delegates vote for second referendum on Brexit

LIVERPOOL, England – Opposition Labor Party members voted overwhelmingly in favor of a second referendum – "the people's vote" – on Brexit.

But what kind of vote, exactly, and when?

The most cathartic moment of the party's annual conference took place on Tuesday morning, when Brexit Labor Secretary Keir Starmer improvised on his prepared remarks and said: "No one excludes the possibility of staying as an option".

The audience of several thousand people burst into applause and lasted for long minutes. Members told the Washington Post that they hoped there was a chance Britain's exit from the European Union would be reversed.

"I'm desperate to stay – for my kids," said Tony O'Malley, 61, a retired lawyer and father of three. "It does not matter if I can go to Berlin to study, but I wish they could."

The enthusiasm in the room was in line with recent polls showing that the vast majority of Labor members, especially its young activists, want to stay in the EU.

Yet most party leaders have little support for Prime Minister Theresa May's final proposal on the relationship between Britain and the EU. And because no one can predict what will happen with the divorce pending, the measure adopted by the union stewards was necessarily hypothetical.

If the British Parliament votes in favor of any agreement reached by May with the EU. in the next two months – an obvious possibility, as it faces the opposition of Labor and supporters of its own conservative party – or if the Brexit negotiations in Brussels implode and that it does not happen. There is no agreement at all, the Labor Party believes to be an immediate general election, "an election that Left Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn thinks he can win and that current polls could be tight.

The Labor Party motion continues, "If we can not hold a general election, Labor should support all the options that remain on the table, including campaigning for a public vote."

Corbyn pointed out that there should be a vote to approve or oppose any deal May could strike in Brussels. But he and other party leaders did not approve another referendum on the essential question of whether to leave or stay.

Emily Thornberry, who is the Secretary of State for Labor Affairs, warned that a recovery would be "profoundly undemocratic".

Brendan Chilton, a group leader called Labor Leave, termed it a "treason of utmost importance" against the millions of Labor supporters who voted in June 2016 for Britain to leave the country. 39; EU.

Gareth Snell, a Labor Party member of Parliament whose constituency voted 70% to leave Central Europe, said the promise of a catch-up referendum had "more fudges than a Cornish confectionery".

He said the sequence of events that would lead to a new referendum seemed unlikely and that the focus should instead be on the underlying forces at Brexit.

"We found a technical fade that means we have ovations in the conference room and delegates can feel better about themselves," he said. "Membership and electorate in some parts of the country are very different and if we do not pay attention, we risk ignoring parts of the country that used the Brexit referendum as a call for help . And we reject this call for help at our peril.

Among the conference activists, however, there was a different cry.

Will Harrison, 58, works in technology and distributes yellow stickers that read "Bollocks to Brexit".

He said the Labor Party "was moving in the right direction", but that the possibility of staying in the EU. should be an option in any future vote.

"If it were just a referendum on what Theresa May is reporting, or a catastrophic Brexit on the edge of the cliff, it's not really a choice," said Harrison. "I think if we organize another referendum, there must be a serious referendum with the possibility of staying."

Steve Gavin, 52, a civilian and structural asset manager wearing a T-shirt labeled "Liverpool for Europe," said that Corbyn and other Labor leaders were "socialist euroskeptics" old-fashioned "who" look at the low proportion of the electorate who would be upset by the policy change "as opposed to" the huge amount of modern-day voters that they would choose with a change policy. They took those for granted in the last election; they can not afford to take these moderates for granted in the next election. "

He said that the country was moving towards a position favorable to the maintenance of power, partly because the reality was getting worse. "People are watching it now, the horror stories of a few years ago: the planes will be anchored, we can not get goods to the ports, we can not feed ourselves. Suddenly, it is very real. "

Brenda Bixter, a musician and 50-year-old teacher, said she felt "bereaved" after the vote on Brexit and hoped the conference would be "essential."

"Everything can be stopped," she said.

Read more:

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