Labour leadership candidate Owen Smith says he will not support the triggering of Article 50 unless Theresa May pledges a second referendum on the deal.
This is nothing more than a tactic by a man who supports the undemocratic EU to backslide on the referendum result.
Frankly, it is shameful, but it is also a confusing strategy for a Labour leadership contender whose party has lost touch with its working-class base. After all, one third of its voters turned out to back Brexit on June 23.
This is proof that politicians like Owen Smith ignore their core voters and show once again the gap between the Labour intelligentsia and the ordinary workers who voted for Brexit in their droves.
Over 17 million people voted Leave. It was the biggest democratic exercise in a generation. And as they voted to leave the European Union their wishes should be respected by all sides and all parties. The people who voted are more important than the politicians.
Owen Smith is not the only Labour MP demanding a second referendum. Others, notably Chuka Umunna and David Lammy, have suggested the same.
There is a common theme here – a real disdain for and hatred of democracy and the will of the people. Those like Smith are fanatical about the EU and fail to see its anti-democratic flaws. They attempted to overthrow their democratically elected party leader, and now they want to ignore the instructions of the British public.
This is now a deep-rooted problem that goes right to the heart of the Labour Party. This anti-democratic feeling is entrenched in its MPs and senior figures – yet it is so far removed from those voters who have voted Labour for years.
Leave won because millions of traditional Labour supporters voted against their party leadership. They voted Leave for a better life for them and for their children. They voted Leave because they were fed up with being left behind and ignored by the so-called party for working Britons.
Hundreds of Labour MPs voted to oust Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader and call a leadership election. They did so on the justification that Corbyn could not win in 2020 or, if one were to take place, in a snap general election. They are the same politicians who now think Labour can win seats under a prospective leader in Owen Smith who is pledging a second referendum. Absurdly, Smith also advocates sitting around a negotiating table with representatives of ISIS.
I live in the North and represent Northern voters and can offer Smith this piece of free advice: this is not a winning strategy.It’s a policy agenda dreamt up by a removed, distant elite who fail to relate to people outside their own bubble.
I fought for a Leave vote because of democracy. I’ve written previously that freedom supersedes everything else. But democracy only works when the politicians, elites and powerbrokers listen to the wishes of the people and act accordingly. Actions speak louder than words and the official party of opposition should think a bit more about acting in the national interest and far less about acting in the interests of the Islington intelligentsia.
Until Labour finds a remedy for this innate anti-democratic ideology, it will never be a party of government. Having a leader who is more photogenic and more establishment will not solve the problem. The vote on June 23 has changed British politics forever. All politicians – even Owen Smith – must listen to the voters and respect the Brexit vote.