Brexit backlash: more than 2.5 million petition for new EU referendum
The proposal, posted before the June 23 referendum, said the government should hold another plebiscite on EU membership.
Just days after voting to leave the European Union, more than 2.5 million Britons and UK residents had signed a petition calling for a second vote, forcing lawmakers to at least consider a debate on the issue.
Parliament has to consider a debate on any petition posted on its website that attracts more than 100,000 signatures. The proposal, posted before the June 23 referendum, said the government should hold another plebiscite on EU membership if the support for Leave or Remain in a referendum was less than 60 per cent in a turnout of under 75 per cent of eligible voters.
I didn’t think my vote was going to matter too much because I thought we were just going to Remain
The result on Thursday saw 52 per cent of voters, 17,410,742 people, back a British exit, on a turnout of 72 per cent.
The referendum wasn’t actually legally binding – Prime Minister David Cameron could have set it up to be so (a nationwide 2011 referendum was set up to be), but he apparently decided better of it. This means that, in theory at least, the British government could completely ignore the results and do whatever it thinks is best.
Of course, doing that would anger the majority of the country who voted to leave the EU. But a new referendum could provide some democratic justification to the decision.
The close result does help the argument somewhat. Britain’s 1975 referendum on membership of the European Economic Community was decided by a 67.2 per cent vote to stay in. In the 2011 vote (on whether to use the Alternative Vote electoral system) was decided by 67.9 per cent of the vote. Nigel Farage, a key Brexit supporter, unwittingly provided support for this argument by saying that if Remain won by a “52 to 48” margin, there would be “unfinished business” and an argument for another vote.
Another additional factor is the various reports of those who voted Leave but now say they are dismayed at what has happened. Many of these accounts seem to suggest that the Leave voter in question thought their vote would serve as a protest vote.
“I didn’t think my vote was going to matter too much because I thought we were just going to Remain,” one man told the BBC on Friday, adding that he was “quite worried” about the effect.
According to an opinion poll conducted on Friday, half of voters said the result should stand, even if the EU offered more reforms to Britain’s EU membership, while 39 per cent said a second referendum should be held under the new terms offered.
Some 48 per cent of British adults said they were happy with the result against 43 per cent who were unhappy, according to the poll by ComRes for the Sunday Mirror.
The online petition – which only British citizens or UK residents have the right to sign – was proving so popular that by Saturday evening, 2,503,065 people had signed it.
Most of those who signed were based in areas where support for staying in the EU was strongest, most especially London, the website indicated.
Cameron, who said on Friday he would resign after leading the failed campaign to keep Britain in the EU, had said there would be no second referendum.
The ComRes poll also asked a representative sample of 1,069 adults when the next general election should be.
One third said there should be a vote as soon as the next prime minister was in place in the autumn, while 23 per cent said an election should be held early next year.
Some 27 per cent said the next election should be in 2020 as currently planned, according to the online poll.
Additional reporting by The Washington Post
