Proposed referendum on the Brexit withdrawal agreement

Proposed referendum on the Brexit withdrawal agreement
Part of a series of articles on
Brexit

Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union


Glossary of terms

Leave campaigns
Remain campaigns

Outcome
Bloomberg speech Jan 2013
Referendum Bill blockedJan 2014
European Parliament election May 2014
2015 general election May 2015
Renegotiation begins Jun 2015
Referendum Act passed Dec 2015
Renegotiation concluded Feb 2016
Referendum held Jun 2016
David Cameron resigns as PM Jul 2016
Theresa May becomes PM Jul 2016
Article 50 judgement Jan 2017
Brexit plan presentedFeb 2017
Notification Act passed Mar 2017
Article 50 invoked Mar 2017
Repeal Bill plan presentedMar 2017
2017 general election Jun 2017
Brexit negotiations begin Jun 2017
Withdrawal Act passedJun 2018
Chequers plan presented Jul 2018
Withdrawal agreement plan presented July 2018
Withdrawal agreement released Nov 2018
Scottish Continuity Bill blockedDec 2018
Meaningful votes Jan–Mar 2019
Brexit delayed until 12 April Mar 2019
Cooper–Letwin Act passed Apr 2019
Brexit delayed until 31 October Apr 2019
European Parliament election May 2019
Theresa May resigns as PM Jul 2019
Boris Johnson becomes PM Jul 2019
Prorogation and annulment Aug–Sep 2019
Benn Act passed Sep 2019
Withdrawal agreement revised Oct 2019
Brexit delayed until 31 January Oct 2019
2019 general election Dec 2019
Agreement Act passed Jan 2020
UK leaves the European Union Jan 2020
Implementation period begins Jan 2020
UK–EU trade deal agreed Dec 2020
Future Relationship Act passed Dec 2020
Scottish Continuity Act passed Dec 2020
Implementation period ends Dec 2020
New EU–UK relationship begins Jan 2021
UK–EU trade deal ratified Apr 2021
Windsor Framework released Feb 2023
Windsor framework adopted Mar 2023
  • flag EU portal
  • flag UK portal
  • v
  • t
  • e
Part of a series of articles on
UK membership
of the European Union
(1973–2020)
Treaty amendments
  • flag EU portal
  • flag UK portal
  • v
  • t
  • e

A referendum on the Brexit withdrawal agreement, also referred to as a "second referendum",[a] a "rerun", a "people's vote",[b] or a "confirmatory public vote", was proposed by a number of politicians and pressure groups as a way to break the deadlock during the 2017–19 Parliament surrounding the meaningful vote on the Brexit deal.

Following the invocation of Article 50 to begin Brexit negotiations, most proposals for a new referendum suggested a choice between accepting the negotiated withdrawal agreement and remaining in the EU, sometimes with the additional option to leave the EU with no deal. In the case of a three-option referendum, voting systems such as supplementary vote,[2] and Borda count[3] were suggested to allow people to state their second preferences.

Reasons that were cited as justification include campaign finance violations by Vote Leave and Leave.EU, the alleged use of data illicitly harvested by Cambridge Analytica,[4][5] revelations of Russian interference through fake social media accounts and allegedly through funding,[6] arguments that the "Leave" camp promoted misinformation,[7] a gradual shift in public opinion, fuelled in part by demographic changes such as adolescents who were too young to take part in the first referendum reaching voting age,[8] and that the eventually-arranged terms of Brexit were unknown at the time of the original vote.[9][10]

The most widely discussed proposal was a referendum between "Remain" and "Accept the deal", which was promoted by the People's Vote pressure group.[failed verification] This was the official position of the Liberal Democrats, the Green Party of England and Wales, Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party. The Labour Party also adopted this position in September 2019.[11] The Conservative Party and Brexit Party were opposed to any referendum.[12]

On 12 December 2019, the Conservative Party, led by Boris Johnson, won an 80-seat overall majority in the 2019 general election, ending the possibility of any referendum on the withdrawal agreement being held before ratification by the UK Parliament or before the UK left the European Union. Subsequently, the UK Parliament passed the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020 which received royal assent on 23 January 2020, and the United Kingdom formally left the European Union at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020.

History

A few weeks after the referendum, an e-petition originally set up beforehand on 25 May 2016 by a member of the Leave-supporting English Democrats[failed verification] demanding it be re-run in the event that a supermajority was not reached became the most popular petition on the site, receiving 4,150,262 signatures.[13] On 5 September 2016, the petition received a non-binding debate by Members of Parliament (MPs) in the Grand Committee Room of Parliament's Westminster Hall but its proposal was rejected.[14][15]

The Liberal Democrats and Green Party went into the 2017 general election campaigning in favour of a second referendum,[16][17] and a minority of pro-EU rebels from Labour and the Conservatives also spoke in favour of it.[citation needed] These[clarification needed] allied in April 2018 into the People's Vote campaign group.[18] After several cabinet ministers resigned in protest at the Chequers statement setting out the Government's position in the Brexit negotiations, Conservative MP Justine Greening proposed a three-way referendum, using the supplementary vote system in an attempt to avoid vote splitting.[2]

The leader of the Trades Union Congress, which is closely allied with Labour, said at its 2018 conference that it would declare in favour of a second referendum if the government failed to get "the deal that working people need".[19] On 25 September 2018, delegates at the Labour Party Conference voted in favour of a motion that if Labour did not support Theresa May's deal, and if subsequent attempts to call another general election failed, the party should explore all options, including a second referendum.[20] In early December 2018, the Financial Times reported that Leave groups had also started preparing for another referendum.[21]

The Labour leadership did not make any commitments to a referendum in January 2019.[22] On 18 February 2019, seven pro-EU MPs resigned from the Labour Party to form The Independent Group (TIG). Over the following days, another Labour MP and three Conservative Party MPs joined them. All eleven[failed verification] supported a referendum.[23]

The following week, the Labour Party announced that it would put forward its own second referendum amendment if its attempts to safeguard workers' rights, Single market access and Customs Union membership failed.[24]

In September 2019, the Labour Party adopted the position of holding a public vote on whether to leave or remain regardless of which party negotiated the withdrawal agreement.[11]

Parliamentary votes

The proposal for a referendum on the withdrawal agreement was first put to Parliament on 14 March 2019 in an amendment (tabled by Sarah Wollaston) to the motion to request the first extension to the Article 50 deadline, where it was rejected by 85–334, with the Labour Party (and all but 43 of its MPs) abstaining.[25][26]

On 27 March and 1 April 2019, a series of indicative votes was held, both times including a referendum on the withdrawal agreement among the proposals. All proposals failed, with those for such a referendum receiving in the first round 268 Ayes, 295 Noes and 71 abstentions (a majority of 27) and in the second round 280 Ayes, 292 Noes and 62 abstentions (a majority of 12). In both rounds, it was the proposal second-closest to receiving an affirmative majority.

Opinion polling

  Leave
  Remain