Referendum on re-joining the EU

The Government should give UK voters the opportunity to vote on whether they want the Government to open negotiations on re-joining the European Union.

The nature of UK's European Union departure now seems unrecognisable from the promises of the Vote Leave campaign. Promises made in 2016 have not and cannot be delivered.

The Government now is proposing a version of Brexit that I don’t think anyone voted for. This is an affront to democratic norms. A second referendum is long overdue following a catalogue of broken promises. UK voters now finally deserve to have another say.

The Government was elected in 2019 on a manifesto which made clear our plans to exit the EU, and that the transition period would end on 31 December 2020. The Government delivered on that mandate, securing an FTA with the EU, and has no plans to rejoin the EU.

This Government’s election in 2019 reinforced the result of the referendum result in 2016, where 17,410,742 people voted to leave the EU.

We left the EU on 31 January 2020, which 330 MPs voted in favour for, resulting in the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act receiving Royal Assent on 23 January 2020.

On 24 December 2020 we secured an agreement with the EU that takes back control of our laws, borders, money, and fisheries, and ends any role for the European Court.

On 31 December 2020, 521 MPs voted for the European Union (Future Relationship) Act 2020 to receive Royal Assent. This Act has made the changes necessary to UK domestic law to implement obligations under the UK/EU Trade Cooperation Agreement and the Nuclear Cooperation Agreement.

Cabinet Office