Sputnik: Should there be a second Brexit referendum?
Marcus Stead: A second referendum is not going to happen because of the sheer logistics of it. To get another referendum you need to do the following; the first thing you need to do is revoke article fifty, then you need to get legislation for the referendum through the House of Commons.
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Sputnik: What will be the likely outcome of the ongoing political stalemate over Brexit?
Marcus Stead: It's clear that there's no parliamentary majority for any of the options. To give you an idea of the extent of the deadlock; any option needs the backing of three hundred and twenty MPs for it to get through the house, which is half the House of Commons.
Now what I think is going to happen; Mrs May has gone to Brussels, she's said to the nineteen twenty-two committee that she's going to seek legal reassurances on the backstop, and she's come back this morning with absolutely nothing.
Now in one sense, she might be glad of that, because if she'd come back with something she'd have to put it before the House of Commons next week before the Christmas recess and she didn't really want to do that.
If we were to join the European Free Trade Area; as Norway is, we would be inside the single market but outside the customs union, so the most important thing for Brexit to be a success is that we are outside the customs union, so we can form trade deals with the wider world.
So far as the single market goes; I have no great objections to single market membership. What concerns me though is this talk of Norway plus, where the plus is being used as a means of keeping us in the customs union indefinitely it seems to be, as a means of resolving the Northern Ireland issue.
It would be an unsatisfactory way of resolving the Northern Ireland border issue, because all the benefits of Brexit economically would be lost.
The views expressed in this article are those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.