THREAD: 1/ Despite months of asking for one, Labour refused a General Election saying they will only agree once 31st Oct has passed. They’ve changed their tune AGAIN. Now they say they want a 2nd referendum instead, which risks months of Parliamentary paralysis. Here’s why:
2/ A 2nd referendum requires four steps – 1. Primary legislation 2. Question testing by the Electoral Commission 3. Operational preparations 4. A regulated campaign period. For the 2016 Referendum, the entire process took 13 months.
3/ Primary legislation - EU Referendum Act 2016 alone took 8 months (!) including the extra month for Statutory Instruments covering date of ref, funding, Welsh forms and conduct rules.
4/ Question testing - Electoral Commission has a statutory duty to assess “intelligibility” of referendum question. Parliament then debates the Electoral Commission recommendation. The Bill then has to be amendable after EC question testing. Usually takes 12 weeks.
5/ Preparing the poll – The Electoral Commission recommends 6 months from completion of legislation to the vote. In 2016 this was reduced to just 16 weeks.
6/ Regulated campaigning – UK referendum legislation specifies a minimum 10 week campaign period. For the 2016 Referendum there was a 16 week campaign period allowing 6 weeks for the designation of official campaigns and 10 weeks for campaigning.
7/ Institute for Government & others say second referendum could be done in 21/22 weeks for legislating and campaigning. BUT those timescales assume consensus in Parliament. Unlikely – whether on wording of question, number of questions, spending rules, or voting system!
8/ Put simply, the public deserve better than a paralysed Parliament limping on, incapable of making a decision. Let’s #GetBrexitDone and move the country forward 🇬🇧
