Six Months to Save Britain

This week a long extension to Article 50 was finally confirmed. Brexit day is now the 31st of October, giving us 6 months to end the Brexit nightmare. While this is shorter than my preferred Brexit extension of 500 years, it is long enough to hold a referendum, and that is what will now happen.

The most significant implication of the extension is that no-deal is now truly dead. Even the Government has now folded on its bluff that this was ever going to happen. It has halted no-deal planning and ordered civil servants to wind down preparations with immediate effect. There must now be a public inquiry into the Government’s handling of Brexit focusing on this disgraceful waste of £4.2bn of pubic money that could have spent on public services and local communities rather than a useless bluff.

May’s deal is also finished. There is no prospect of it getting a majority in Parliament, and this extension is not long enough to renegotiate it, even were the EU to U-turn on their position that the Withdrawal Agreement will not be reopened. As I put it on TalkRadio this week, May is now just pretending to be Prime Minister, but “has no authority, no strategy and always makes the worst move possible." What a contrast to the impressive leadership of Donald Tusk who said at the announcement of the extension, “Maybe we can avoid the UK leaving the EU, this is obviously not my role, but it’s my personal, quiet dream.”

That leaves us with the three Rs: Referendum, Revoke, Remain. This is our task for the next six months, and we must pursue it relentlessly now that victory is in sight.

The first step is the European Elections. There needs to be record turnout among Remainers to show that we are now a decisive electoral force in the UK in the same way that UKIP harnessed the European Elections to kickstart Brexit in the first place. The first step is a massive registration push. It takes just a couple minutes to register online, so make sure everyone you know is registered, and spread the word that EU/EEA citizens in the UK can vote at the European Parliament elections.

Last week I recorded a live podcast for the New European with Alastair Campbell, which you can listen to here. I also spoke to huge crowds in Vauxhall on Thursday and Harrogate yesterday, and am speaking in Rotherham and Leeds today. The number of people at these events across the country and their passion for fighting for the future of the UK by stopping Brexit never ceases to encourage me. Do come and join me when I am in your area – see my tweets or facebook page for more information.