Brexit news: Alastair Campbell's desperate attempt to call for second referendum
Speaking to Bloomberg, the former Labour communications director claimed Brexit was the reason why British politics are "a mess" at the moment. Mr Campbell argued that if the House of Commons votes in favour of the UK remaining in the EU customs union, "they might as well stay in the single market" too, and that it would only follow that Britons should be given another chance to vote on whether to leave the European Union at all. He said: “It’s all very complicated. We had a referendum and I don’t think we should underestimate the difficulty of the politics with that. “It’s a very rare situation where most of Parliament thinking that the public got it wrong but most of Parliament prepared to do something they still think is wrong.
BLOOMBERG•GETTY Brexit news: Alastair Campbell calls for second referendum if UK remains in customs union
“But you know the House of Lords voted in favour of staying in the customs union, the House of Commons is now going to vote on that. “I don’t think we really know what Theresa May wants out of this. “I for one think if we stay in the customs union which I think we should, we might as well stay in the single market. “And if we might as well stay in the single market we might as well say to the people do you want to have another vote on this because the Brexit that you were promised is not the Brexit that you are getting.”
If we stay in the customs union which I think we should, we might as well stay in the single market Alastair Campbell
Asked if a second referendum would entail a General Election and whether Jeremy Corbyn has a chance to win, he said: “I don’t know. “I think part of the Labour party’s strategy is for the Government to fall. “I’m not sure the Government will fall. I think it’s possible that they could lose lots of votes on Brexit without actually the Conservative party pressing the button that leads to an election. “Listen, our politics is a mess at the moment. Our politics is a complete mess and to my mind is Brexit that is causing the mess and once more is the fact that both parties are not actually being honest about what they think about Brexit that is making the mess even worse.”
EU Summit 2018 LIVE pictures from Brussels Fri, March 23, 2018 Theresa May sought to unite EU leaders in condemnation of Moscow over the poisoning of a former Russian spy, but she faces resistance from states keen to protect their Kremlin ties Play slideshow REUTERS 1 of 17 Jean-Claude Juncker and Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May