BY Ben Kerrigan-
Mp’s will have to debate calls for a second referendum after a 4 million signatory petition called for a rerun in the largest petitioned signed in the last five years.
The document calls on the government to hold a second vote on the grounds of the leave campaign group failing to win more than 60 percent of the ballots, also with less than a 75 percent turn out rate.
Parliament is obliged to debate any petition that generates up to 100,000 signatures. Interestingly, the e petition was launched in May before the referendum that took place on June 23 by a leave supporter, who had concerns Britain may vote to remain by narrow margin and turnout.
However, claims that many names have been added to it fraudulently in order to fake the overall number of signatories submitted, is being investigated by the House of Commons petitions committee. However, a government spokesperson has urged disgruntled remain groups involved in the petition to respect the decision of the referendum as the UK prepares for Brexit.
A statement by the Foreign office read : ‘The referendum was one of the biggest democratic exercises in British history with over 33 million having their say”.
The government has been clear that this was a once in a generator vote and the decision must be respected”.
Respected or not, the issue of a parliamentary debate is separate in order to have the reasons protesters want a second referendum debated against the reasons the Brexit outcome should be respected. UK Prime minister has always emphasized that Brexit means Brexit, indicating that there can be no retreating on the Brexit referendum outcome.
Whenever the debate occurs, it is bound to revive the very split emotions in parliament that accompanied the historic referendum. Several complaints of misinformation in the public domain during the lead up to the referendum have been presented to explain the Brexit outcome. However, with the abundance of media coverage that accompanied the referendum, only incompetence can be blamed for any failure to adequately inform the public about the pros and cons of a Brexit outcome.
Theresa May is scheduled to invoke Article 50 in 2017 to commence the Brexit process, and the speed and process this will take is yet to be seen
