Her Labour counterpart and Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s main challenger as head of the opposition Jeremy Corbyn has also clarified his policy vis a vis Brexit, stating that he will aim to strike a new divorce bill with Brussels, and then grant a second referendum on the matter where the public would face a choice between backing said agreement or remaining in the bloc. But do any of these proposals have any chance of winning over an already frustrated electorate?
Political commentator Mandy Boylett shares her views on the matter.
Sputnik: Will Labour and the Liberal Democrat’s stances towards Brexit be enough to win them any votes at the next general election?
Mandy Boylett: Labour’s position is still quite ambiguous. It’s along the lines of saying that they will campaign for a better Brexit deal than Boris Johnson’s and then put it to a second referendum, and that they might campaign for the deal that they negotiated, or they might campaign to remain, it’s kind of trying to be everything to all people.
The Liberal Democrats just want to revoke Article Fifty, and that’s very poor; you can’t just revoke the result of a referendum without even putting it back to the public, that would make people lose faith in democracy completely, so I think they both have very poor positions on Brexit.
Sputnik: Would leaving the EU under the terms of Boris Johnson’s deal be a true Brexit?
Mandy Boylett: I’m hopeful that the Conservatives will get a majority and I don’t agree with Nigel Farage’s position.
He’s saying that it’s not a proper Brexit and that it’s Brexit in name only, with regards to the deal that Boris Johnson has negotiated, but I feel that although the deal is not perfect; it’s probably as good as we are going to get, it’s just a shame that Theresa May was in power and started the negotiations when she did.
After the transition period, we will be able to make our own free trade deals, and there is something to be said for having said period, in order to minimise disruption to businesses.
Sputnik: Could Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party’s participation in the general election lead to another hung parliament?
Mandy Boylett: I think it is bad for Nigel Farage to stand a full range of candidates because he risks taking votes from Tory leavers, and allowing Labour to get more MPs, which is a very dangerous strategy because that could allow Labour to get into Number Ten Downing Street.
The sensible thing for Farage to do would be to just stand Brexit Party candidates in areas with Labour MPs, where the constituents voted leave, but the Labour MPs are remainers, and the Tories have got no chance.
If he did that; he would be taking those Labour leavers and getting them to vote for the Brexit Party, which would be the best way of holding the Tories feet to the fire over the transition period, but having said that, looking at the experience that UKIP had in 2015, where they got four million votes and only one elected MP, it’s quite possible that the Brexit Party could stand all these MP candidates, but not actually get any MPs elected, and allow by the backdoor a Labour minority government in, which would be the most appalling thing that could happen to Britain in more than a generation, so I really do think Nigel Farage needs to re-think his strategy on that.