Dear Prime Minister...

AC Grayling writes an open letter to Keir Starmer about why the time is now right to give voters another say on Brexit

Dear Prime Minister

I hope you or one of your advisors will take the following seriously; it is written with good intentions.

Like you, I campaigned for the UK to remain a member of the EU in 2016, and in the years since have continued to argue strongly that Brexit is an extremely serious mistake and should be reversed. We see now in myriad ways just how serious a mistake it is, and for a majority of the UK population the sentiment is that we should re-join, at very least the Single Market.

Consistent polling shows 60% of the country wishing this, and among the under 30s over 80%. These numbers guarantee that the future of the UK is in the EU, and the question is, why wait? Why should further damage to our economy and our world standing be allowed to continue unnecessarily? But important – immensely important – as the economic aspect is, there are other reasons why the UK should be part of the EU, detailed below.

In remarks you made before the General Election, you ruled out the possibility of re-joining. I do not mean the following remark in any hostile way, because I am sure you yourself know this: that it is a serious mistake for a politician to rule out anything, the world changes, and a rational mind changes accordingly. Facts are not interested in political pledges.

So, first:

The economic considerations in favour of re-joining the Single Market – and preferably the EU in order that the UK be a rule-maker as well as a rule-taker – speak for themselves. You and your colleagues in Cabinet already know how much the UK is losing in trade and tax revenue, how more than half of our SMEs are struggling, how the higher education sector has been damaged, how the NHS, care services, hospitality and farming are impacted by the loss of EU labour, and how we disadvantage ourselves by not being at the table when decisions are made by an enormous economic power right on our doorstep.

Second:

As your Foreign Secretary has well said, the world is a divided and dangerous place. Unity with our neighbours, working together, sharing the benefits of security measures and concerted action, is too obvious to detail.

But more to the point: the UK, as a big player historically, can add so much to European security, as it can to the political balance of the EU. To do it from within rather than as an offshore country, having a seat at the table as a full and influential member rather than calling from the sidelines, would be an enormous benefit to Europe and to the UK.

Third:

The EU is a peace, progress and prosperity project. It is a matter of shame that we, a European people, should not be putting our shoulders to the wheel with our close kin and friends. Like the sulky youth who takes his football home, we have turned our backs on a great imaginative project which demonstrates that unity and cooperation is the way forward for the world, after all the devastations of division and war that have marred history. We should be a full part of that project.

Finally:

It is not for a politician or a political party to tell the people that they cannot have a say on so major a matter as our relationship with Europe. The facts are in, we have had the best part of a decade to see the nature of the dramatic mistake that is Brexit, and we the people deserve a chance to make a judgment on the matter.

Another referendum is called for.

This is not least because, again as you know, there are serious questions about the legitimacy of the 2016 referendum. Only 37% of the electorate voted Leave. That is less than the threshold required for a trades union strike. Those who voted Leave were lied to; they were told there was no question of leaving the Single Market, that there would be no change to travel and living, working and retiring in Europe. The Leave campaign broke electoral law, and there is a grave question about outside influence on the referendum process – not least funding from outside sources interested in disrupting the UK and the EU.

Yes, the facts are in on all fronts and we the people deserve another say.

If you disagree with any of the points above, we the people deserve to hear your reasons. You have given none so far, except to say that revisiting Brexit would be ‘divisive’ – as if it isn’t already deeply divisive. Another say would end the divisiveness once for all.

If any of the above considerations do not persuade you, please explain why. You as Prime Minister owe us no less.

But above all, we the people are owed another say. We have the facts. Let us be the judge.

Yours sincerely,

Anthony Grayling

Professor A. C. Grayling CBE