To call for his support for a people’s vote
** This blog was updated on 20 September 2018: not only has the London Assembly passed a resolution calling on the Mayor to back a People's Vote: but on 16 September 2018 Mayor Sadiq Khan wrote in the Observer that he was calling for a public vote on the Brexit deal with the option to Remain. Hurrah! **
** The rest of this blog appears only as a matter of record **
London4Europe Committee Member Michael Romberg writes: this is the second in a series of letters that I suggest you write. The first a few days ago was for if you had Labour councillors. The third will be to all Borough councillors asking them to arrange a council resolution for the people’s vote.
Sadiq Khan campaigned for Remain in the referendum. Since then he has largely sought to make the best of Brexit.
Nonetheless, in July and September 2017 he suggested that a future Labour manifesto might include a commitment to a referendum on the terms, though perhaps that was more about crafting a winning manifesto than about stopping Brexit. Though in his interview with the Standard he ‘made clear he did not see any Brexit deal emerging that would be good enough to accept without offering a second referendum: “I so far have not been persuaded how this Government has a plan that works for our country,” he said.’. In October 2017 he said that a referendum on the terms was an option if Parliament rejected the Government’s deal.
In the 19-25 June 2018 edition of Time Out he said “I wish we weren’t leaving the European Union, and if Parliament rejects the deal made with the EU, I’m hoping there could be another vote.” That is very pretty, but it is not enough for the Mayor to be a bystander “hoping” when he should be out there campaigning.
London voted Remain (60R:40L). Support for Remain has since risen. The Mayor should represent London’s views. We should therefore try to get him to come out clearly and campaign actively for the People’s Vote.
In June 2018 Sadiq Khan announced that he would stand for re-election for a second term as Mayor.
A draft letter is below. The more you can personalise it to reflect your own views and circumstances the better.
You can contact Sadiq Khan by e-mail at [email protected]. Or you can use an online form, where you can attach a letter, or by post. The addresses are here.
You can sign yourself up to the campaign for a people’s vote on the terms – here.
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MODEL LETTER FOR YOU TO ADAPT
Dear Mayor Sadiq Khan,
On 6 September 2018, the London Assembly passed a motion calling on you to back a People's Vote. I ask that you publicly come out with your agreement to the motion and that you campaign for a referendum on the terms with the option to Remain, giving the electorate the final say.
Stopping Brexit is central to the future of London. If you wish to be Mayor in 2020 you will surely wish to be Mayor of a successful London, one of the pre-eminent capitals of Europe. If London is to retain this status, that means staying in the EU.
You told the Evening Standard in 2017 that you did not see any Brexit deal emerging that would be good enough to accept without offering a vote on it. “I so far have not been persuaded how this Government has a plan that works for our country,”. You were right then and you are still right. The issue is how to enable the people of London and the rest of the UK to change the country’s course.
The reasons for calling for a People’s Vote on the terms are simple. In 2016, the Leave campaign had no agreed plan. 2016 was a vote on an idea. You would not expect the GLA to take a project from idea to implementation without a review of the project plan. Brexit is no different.
A vote on the terms would not be a re-run of 2016. Rather it would be the first time the electorate could choose between two concrete options: the EU as it is, and Brexit as defined by the Withdrawal Agreement and the Framework of Future Relations.
Giving that choice to the same electorate as made the 2016 decision would be honourable and transparent.
Other methods of responding when Parliament rejects the Government's Brexit deal will not work. Sending the Government back to negotiate some more would be pointless - no material change would be available. A general election cannot resolve Brexit as its purpose is to choose a government, not to settle single-issue questions.
I ask that as the Mayor of Remain-voting London you actively call on the Government and on all national politicians and MPs to support a People’s Vote on the terms of Brexit with the option to Remain giving the electorate the Final Say.
Yours sincerely
{Give your name and street address so that he knows you live in London}
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