Brexit

Lord Shutt of Greetland Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd October 2019 Lords Chamber

[Lord Shutt of Greetland (LD)]

My Lords, this is my first appearance on matters European since the Article 50 notice was triggered. Your Lordships may well say that it has all been said many times, but not by me. That is true up to a point, but my contribution has to be put into context.

The referendum took place on 23 June 2016—three years and three months ago. Many of us believe that the leave campaign put out a false prospectus. We can all say all sorts of things that we thought were wrong: £350 million a week on the bus; easy-peasy to get a good deal—by the way, last week that changed to a “walk in the park”. There was not a word on the case for the UK giving leadership. There was no mention of the problems that leaving the EU would bring to Ireland, north and south, and the potential damage to the peace process. There was no mention of the threat to the UK as a whole and the potential of a Scottish secession; no mention of economic damage and all that that brings to employment. Well, that is enough of that—it was a false prospectus.

I turn back to the referendum. It was consultative, not binding—but it is why we are here. Some 46.5 million people were eligible to vote; 17.4 million voted to leave, as is frequently mentioned by the Brexit Minister in this House; 16.1 million voted to remain; but 13 million did not vote at all. I have checked half a dozen opinion polls which were taken shortly after the referendum. It was quite clear that the bulk of those who did not vote regretted it but were remainers.

Now, in October 2019, three years and three months after the referendum, there has been a distinct change in the make-up of the electorate. According to the Office for National Statistics, just over 600,000 Britons die each year. Therefore, in the region of 2 million of those eligible to vote who were on the register are unlikely to be able to vote today. The other side of that coin is that 750,000 youngsters each year become eligible to vote at 18 and therefore 2.5 million people between the ages of 18 and 21 who are alive today were never consulted in 2016—quite a change.

What has happened since? Other people have voted many times, here and in the other place. According to information supplied by the ever-helpful House of Lords Library, MPs have voted 227 times on UK/EU matters since 23 June 2016 and your Lordships have voted 52 times. In other words, the people were given one opportunity, but MPs and Peers were given 279 chances, and counting. Why is an out-of-date consultative referendum decision still thought to be valid? When does the Minister think it will cease to be valid? Surely, people are entitled to take the view that, if MPs and Peers have had 279 chances to vote on this crucial issue during the last 39 months, they, the people, ought to have a second chance now that they are more informed. This Government are not on firm foundations.