We are living in unprecedented times in the United Kingdom. Theresa May has broken a record I am sure she is not pleased about, losing a vote on her Brexit deal by 230 votes: the largest a Prime Minister has lost since the 1920s. The loss was not surprising, as anyone interested and aware of the political environment knew exactly what was going to happen.
What no one can really say with absolute
certainty is exactly what is going to happen next. With her deal defeated and
her leadership secure, for now,
Theresa May is now attempting to bring on side the opposition to vote for her
deal.
Jeremy Corbyn will not talk unless No Deal is taken off the table much to the frustration of many of his MPs and, I suspect,
his support base in Northern England. The SNP have not changed
position either as they maintain their pursuit to either halt Brexit entirely
or keep Scotland in the EU by seeking independence. The DUP are still aiming to
see change to the legal text of the Withdrawal Agreement regarding the backstop
whilst rejecting claims they
are being tempted into a ‘soft Brexit’ compromise.
So after months of stalemate, it appears we have more stalemate. The EU have told Mrs May once again, as they have every time she has went back to them, that they will be making very little concessions leaving only one option in their mind: to delay or stop Brexit.
I voted Leave in the 2016 referendum, and I firmly believe that a WTO Brexit is the only way to achieve the Brexit that people voted for. It is the only way we can guarantee we leave the single market and customs union without being tied to it indirectly or directlyas some in Westminster want us to be. If Theresa May simply abandoned her deal and adopted No Deal as her official policy she would not only give the certainty that businesses are crying out for but she would receive, in my opinion, astronomical support from those who voted Leave and won the referendum.
Would such an approach be blocked by parliament? Of course, the Remainers would do everything they could to stop it but who would be surprised? The Westminster bubble already appears, to the average leave voter, to be hell bent on ignoring them anyway.
The collective support for a No Deal policy would be so much greater than the current policies being proposed that MPs would have no choice but to go with it otherwise they are highly likely to lose their jobs at the next election. It is high time Theresa May calls the bluff of all those remain MPs and allow us to see whether the will of the people or their own personal interests are more important.
How has one arrived at such a conclusion?
As a hard Brexiteer I often assess the Question Time panel and raise an eyebrow at its apparent pro-remain bias. Nonetheless, when Isabelle Oakeshott exclaimed we adopt No Deal there wasn’t just a subdued applause or an awkward few claps there was an all-out roar of support. The audience’s response I believe reflects the attitude that most Leave voters have at this stage. The response of Dianne Abbott and the rest of the panel again reflected most bitter Remainers: red faced and dismayed that people disagree with them.
The problem is that much of what is going on in Westminster confirms the widely held belief that that bubble, inside the bigger bubble that is London, simply does not listen to the people. The people knew what they voted for. When we were asked in 2016 to Leave or Remain there wasn’t a footnote that gave what type of Leave we wanted. Pointing out that we in the working class didn’t know what we were voting for is ridiculous: it was a major tactic of the Remain campaign to explicitly tell us that if we did vote Leave we would be leaving the single market and customs union.
Yet, we still voted Leave: and yes, we also voted for non-economic reasons as well. But now, all this stalemate and confusion has led to claims, even by our own chancellor, that Brexit could be stopped altogether. Some despicable people have even suggested that we should have a second referendum because all those who voted Leave are dying off.
If the Remainers couldn’t understand why we voted in such a way in the first place then who can reasonably expect them to understand just how anti-democratic and (even more so now) condescending they come across?
To be frank, if Brexit is not delivered, if it is delayed or it is stopped then this country will become a lot more divided and a lot nastier. There is the risk of demolishing the Conservative Party altogether. It may remain as one entity but its voters will be so disillusioned that they will either vote for whatever hard Eurosceptic party becomes dominant following the betrayal or will simply not vote at all. With their votes going elsewhere or not going anywhere at all, there is the real risk of a Corbyn led government as the only generation left with the energy to vote will be the delusional far-left millennials with their hopes of free everything.
Whether you support No Deal or not, it is a matter of principle now. Principle in the sense that it is the expressed will of the people but also in the sense that it is the only way we can retain trust in our democratic system.
Otherwise the same people who had the audacity as to vote Leave and upset the establishment will, not intentionally but rather via their disenfranchisement, set off the events that will lead to the true destruction of this great United Kingdom.
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Connor Stobo is a final year student at the University of St Andrews studying for a degree in International Relations. His interests fall within International Security, Foreign Policy and UK Politics. He has written articles on nuclear diplomacy, Russian foreign policy and United Nations Peacekeeping.
