Posted on 2017-05-15 | 10:37

"I am no great fan of referendums and much prefer ‘representative democracy’ but I think that there are occasions when it is right that the direct democracy of a referendum is appropriate.

There was a referendum on whether the UK remained in the Common Market back in 1975 and there was also a referendum on whether there should be a change in the voting system for General Elections during the Coalition Government. There have been further referendums over whether cities should have directly elected Mayors.

David Cameron called the referendum because he thought it would be a way of resolving the on-going problem in the Conservative Party about the EU. However the so-called ‘re-negotiated terms’ were totally irrelevant once the referendum was announced. Because there has not been a proper discussion about the future direction of Europe ever since the 1975 referendum a lot of people felt their views and concerns had been ignored and this, coupled with a backlash against the growing inequality in this country because of the neoliberal economic agenda which has been followed since the mid-1980s, resulted in a big anti-establishment vote.

In a referendum everybody’s vote is of equal value and what issues motivate people when they vote is entirely up to them. I made my position absolutely clear at the beginning of the campaign. This was that, on balance, I believed that the best interests of the UK would be served by us leaving the EU because I believed the EU was a failed project, and incapable of reforming itself, and that trying to create a United States of Europe by stealth was not going to be in the interests of this country or of the other countries of the EU.

I did not seek to impose my views on anyone and I did not campaign in my constituency. I told everyone, including my staff, that they had to make up their own minds as to how they voted.

  In Birmingham six of the ten constituencies voted to ‘leave’ despite the fact that all six MPs campaigned to remain. The four constituencies that voted to remain included my constituency of Hall Green and I made it clear, after the result was announced, that now that ‘representative democracy’ had returned I would not be voting to trigger Article 50 out of respect for the clearly expressed wishes of the majority of voters in my constituency. When Parliament voted on triggering Article 50 I did not vote for the motion.

I fully understand, and respect, the views of those people who passionately believe in the European Union but the referendum vote was clear with a 52% to 48% majority. Almost a million more people voted to leave than remain. While I entirely accept that the referendum was not ‘binding’ I do think, however, that any attempt to undermine the outcome of the referendum, whatever motives people had when voting, could well result in a constitutional crisis. The people of this country made their decision and that decision has to be respected and implemented.

It is up to the Government to achieve the best possible terms for our withdrawal from the EU and the negotiated terms have to be put to Parliament for them to approve or reject. I would also favour having the negotiated terms put to the electorate in a General Election or another referendum.