WORCESTER’S Green Party leader has claimed voters were ‘whipped up into an immigration frenzy’ in the 2016 EU referendum as his calls for a People’s Vote on the final Brexit deal were rejected by city council chiefs.
Coun Louis Stephen made the comments during a heated debate which called on Worcester City Council to support a People’s Vote and urge council chiefs to press city MP and Brexit minister Robin Walker to support the calls in the event of a no-deal Brexit.
The Green leader was among 700,000 people who took to the streets of London last month calling for the British people to have their say on the final deal and said he was concerned about a ‘race to the bottom’ in terms of environmental protections and workers rights as well as the impact on jobs and the economy.
Coun Stephen described the 2016 referendum, which saw Worcester vote to leave by 53.7 per cent to 46.3 per cent, as flawed and accused leave campaigners of misleading voters with claims of extra cash for the NHS and that Turkey was about to join the European Union.
“Another big problem for the referendum was many people were not voting on the EU, but instead to give the government of the day a bloody nose – how many were voting on suffering years of austerity?,” he said.
“It would be a very brave thing for any MP to go against the will of the people. The people voted to leave the EU – I don’t think it’s likely many MP’s would go against the June 2016 vote – yet in their hearts they know Brexit will harm our country.
“We need to throw those MP’s a life line to break the impasse by putting it back to the people to let them have their say on the final deal.”
“It can’t make sense to enact a policy as the ‘will of the people’ and yet say it would be wrong to ask the people again. It might be regarded as unnecessary, or a waste of time, or irritating, or insulting, or, indeed, divisive. But it can’t, in democratic terms, be wrong to hold a democratic vote,” he added.
But his calls were met with scorn by Coun Chris Mitchell who reeled off a list of the wards which voted to leave in the city and challenged councillors to stand up for their constituents.
“The city voted to leave, there is no need for another vote,” he said.
Coun Lucy Hodgson, Coun Richard Udall and council leader Coun Marc Bayliss were among those who revealed they had voted to remain but accepted the result and echoed Coun Mitchell’s calls for the 2016 referendum result to be respected.
Labour deputy leader Coun Joy Squires backed Coun Stephen and said: “I want the people of this city to take back control of this decision’.
Coun Tom Collins, who works for Worcester Bosch, labelled leaving the European Union a ‘terrible idea’ and backed Coun Stephen’s calls.
“The people voted but the result was not clear, the essence of a democracy is everyone has access to the facts. We were lied to and now the lies are frankly falling apart,” he said.
Coun Stephen’s proposal was defeated by 18 votes to 16 with one abstention.
