Today I got to speak at Prime Minister’s Questions.
Last night she suffered a crushing defeat. Her deal is a bad one. 80% of the public think it would be bad for our country and now we know that Parliament feels the same.
There are only two possible ways forward: a change of prime minister or a change of direction.
Today we found out that she intends to stay, but astonishingly she also says her ‘red lines’ remain. She seems to think the country and the Commons are wrong and she is right. I truly fear that if she carries on like this she will drive is into a ditch simply because she is too proud to steer in a new direction.
There is now a vacuum in parliament. No option has a clear majority and the prime minister will meet people but not listen to them.
When she became prime minster she said in her first speech that she would give people more power over their lives. If she doesn’t give people the power to have a say on this deal then those words were hollow and I told her so today.
People groan at the thought of another referendum. I’m really sorry but there is no easy way out. Her deal would mean two more years of negotiation and then indefinitely into the backstop, this madness would go on forever. No-deal would obliterate bast swathes of our economy and we’d be picking up the pieces for decades. But a referendum would be decisive and over in six months.
Parliament would have to choose a question, and is push for something along these lines:
‘Do you accept the deal negotiated by government and want to leave the EU
Or
Do you reject the deal negotiated by government and want to remain a member of the EU’
A People’s Vote UK is not a utopia, it might only be the least worst option, but it is the only way I see out of the mess that Theresa May and her string of terrible Brexit ministers have got us into. That’s why I’m fighting for it
Lots of people have asked me if doing a PMQ is as scary as it looks. YES….it is!!! It’s very noisy, it’s to the prime minister in front of 650 MP, live on TV, and I just knew that my dad would be watching!!! But as I’ve said before, I know that people in Hove did something different when they have me this job, I wasn’t the favourite to win that election, and I know you have high expectations to give you the voice our community deserves. So I wouldn’t miss a chance like this for all the tea in China!! Please let me know what you’re thinking on a day like this in our politics. Yours, Peter