We need to know the will of the people in 2019

However, with none of the promises made by the Leave campaign in 2016 being remotely possible, their argument is now to carry out what was the ‘will of the people’. No more easy trade deals, no more ‘this will hurt them more than us’, no more extra funding for the NHS: instead threats of job losses, threats to security, higher prices, lack of medical supplies. All the options on the table will make the UK poorer apart from Remain.

The last thing we need as we see our police force stretched, police stations closed, our public services having to do more and more with less and less, is to put businesses under threat and reduce the amount of funding through taxation going to the Exchequer to eventually improve the situation. Not yet another round of austerity.

The latest YouGov poll (January 17) shows 48 per cent for Remain and 40 per cent for Leave. So in 2019 is this now what the people want? The real ‘Will of the People’. From 2016 we have learnt so much about the EU itself as compared to what we were told in the referendum campaign and in much of the press over the past 40 years.

Some people were open and told researchers that they have changed from Leave to Remain, but the big change has come from young people who have come of age to vote in 2019. They want the advantages and opportunities in their future lives that being a full member of the EU can bring.

It is very hard for someone openly to admit that in 2016 they were wrong so imagine those who will change their vote in the anonymity of a ballet booth.

As we look on in amazement at Meaningful Votes 4,5, etc,taking place and failure to get Indicative Votes to coalesce around one option in the House of Commons, let us have the ‘will of the people of 2019’ put to the test in a second referendum now that we know so much more about the EU.

Richard Newcombe

Chair of London4Europe and Waltham Forest European Movement