Mr Corbett, Labour’s leader in the European Parliament, suggests that ‘Remain’ would win if a second referendum was called, saying: “As someone joked to me the other day, where there’s death, there’s hope.” The Labour man’s remarks coincide with a public letter signed by more than 50 of Britain’s top business leaders calling for a second referendum and warning of the potential economic damage from “either a blindfold or destructive Brexit”. Many Labour members feel that Labour’s Southport-schooled top Euro MP is showing the way on this issue while Jeremy Corbyn dithers on the sidelines.
Among those signing the open letter today to the Sunday Times are Head of Waterstones James Daunt (below left), former Sainsburys boss Justin King (below centre) and Baroness Lane-Fox, the co-founder of Lastminute.com and board member at Marks & Spencer. The letter comes only weeks after 700,000 people rallied in London calling for a ‘People’s Vote’ now that the truth is out about the real cost of Brexit to Britain.
The letter states:
“The business community was promised that, if the country voted to leave, there would continue to be frictionless trade with the EU and the certainty about future relations that we need to invest for the long term. Despite the Prime Minister’s best efforts, the proposals being discussed by the Government and the European Commission fall far short of this, and they are not nearly as good as the current deal we have inside the EU. The uncertainty over the past two years has already led to a slump in investment, which will make our country poorer.
“We are now facing either a blindfold or a destructive hard Brexit. Both these options will further depress investment. They will be bad for business and bad for working people.
‘Given that neither was on the ballot in 2016, we believe the ultimate choice should be handed back to the public with a People’s Vote.”
if a Leave vote was returned, there would be a “significant retail downturn’ which would ‘reverse much of the hard-won gain of the last few years’ for the company”
Justin King has previously warned that UK consumers were ‘completely in the dark’, when it came to the EU negotiations.
Speaking to BBC’s ‘Panorama’ he said: “One can say very clearly what the direction will be: higher prices, less choice, and poorer quality, because all of those dimensions have been improved by these open trading relationships that we’ve had over the last 40 years. “
“Brexit, almost in whatever version it is, will introduce friction, it will introduce barriers. That makes it less efficient, which means all three of those benefits — price, quality, and choice — go backwards.”
Other confirmed signatories of the letter include Cobra Beer founder Lord Bilimoria, former Marks and Spencer chairman Lord Myners, Alex Chesterman, founder of the Zoopla property website and Sir Simon Robertson, the ex-chairman of Rolls-Royce.
Sir Mike Rake, former chairman of BT Group has also signed the letter and has previously highlighted that the decision to exit the EU would be irreversible. And Richard Reed, co-founder of Innocent Drinks has branded Brexit unhelpful: “Brexit is unhelpful, no-one I know is saying it’s a good thing.” Polling expert Peter Kellner of You Gov has backed Mr Corbett’s analysis, saying:
“If not a single voter in the referendum two years ago changes their mind, enough mainly Leave voters will have died, and enough mainly Remain voters will have reached voting age, to wipe out the Leave majority achieved in June 2016.” Using data from a YouGov survey, Mr Kellner claims that the 1.26 million Leave majority at the referendum was being eroded by 1,350 a day – even taking account of lower turn-out rates among younger voters. And he named January 19 as ‘crossover day’ when anti-Brexit voters will start to outnumber Leavers – just 10 weeks before the UK formally quits the EU.
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