Trapped between a rock of Labour-supporting Leave voters and the hard place where its Remain-supporting voters reside, the Labour party`s obfuscation on Brexit details is hardly unsurprising. It does, however, have to make its intentions clear soon, and William Keegan hinted at a possible solution (For the poor, it`s not the EU that`s the problem. It`s austerity, 27.01,19). With any form of Brexit looking disastrous, particularly in the short-term, and especially on the jobs/working regulations` front, support for a second, but different, referendum on leaving the EU looks a sensible option.
This time, however, Corbyn`s Labour needs to take charge of the Remain campaign, so that it can, in Keegan`s words, "take the austerity bull by the horns". Only a Labour government-in-waiting can make promises about taxation, spending and investment which can give hope to those who justifiably feel "left behind", and who took out their frustrations on the EU. In 2016 politicians were too cowardly to admit that their poverty was the fault of successive governments, which had focused too much on the City, the financial institutions, and the south-east, at their expense, a mistake Labour would have no reason to repeat.
In this second referendum the messengers are as important as the message, which is why the likes of Blair, Mandelson and austerity-supporting Tories have to be silenced. Farage will undoubtedly return in his private jet to rage against the Establishment, whilst Rees-Mogg and Johnson would find it much more difficult this time even to sound credible. It might be unpopular with extreme Tories and the right-wing press, but with a united Labour party promising Leave-voters the future that the previous campaign could not, the result would almost certainly be a far different one!
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