Brexit, People’s Vote; letter from my wife to our MP, Philip Hammond

10 November 2018

Dear Mr Hammond,

Jo Johnson’s resignation from the cabinet makes it clear that the Brexit deal being pushed by our Prime Minister will do significant harm to this country and people’s livelihoods. Johnson even goes so far as to say the nation is being conned.

The Government’s apparent strategy to coerce Parliament into approving a damaging deal because the alternative no-deal would be cataclysmic is a shocking way to steward a nation and its people.

There is a third choice: to stick with the deal we already have, inside the EU, and to steer the UK and Europe with a strong voice at the top table. Given all the new information a “People’s Vote” is not a re-run of the 2016 referendum; it would be giving people a chance to consider their true options, and the true consequences of their choice.

Nobody voted to cripple the country. If we’re all forced to live with the dire consequences of either a bad deal or no deal without a chance to say STOP, I believe both Remainers and Leavers in your constituency will be angry. This is NOT honouring the people’s will — it is an abuse of democracy.

Businesses cannot overcome mismanagement of the nation. A bad Brexit will mean lost investment, mass unemployment and a deterioration of public services and the NHS. As this misery bites harder, we can surely expect yet more divisive politics, recriminations and even civil unrest. Either outcome will deepen — not heal — wounds from the 2016 referendum and more than two years of uncertainty and bitterness.

You are well respected by many, many in this constituency. We need you, as our voice inside Government, to be the voice of reason. I do not believe your constituents are telling you to proceed no matter what. Your seniority in Parliament is a great strength and many — I think most — in your constituency would be grateful for your leadership.

Michael Rake, the former CBI president and BT chairman, wrote in the weekend FT to say: “We tend to forget that 64 per cent of the total electorate, and the overwhelming majority of the young who voted, did not vote to leave. With so much at stake a ‘People’s Vote’ is the only answer, as the former minister Jo Johnson wrote in his eloquent resignation statement.”

I fully agree with Johnson and Rake.

Your sincerely,

Glenda Thisdell