Outspoken Tory Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg has made a bizarre claim that a second vote would be like a ‘dictatorship’ – despite calling for two himself before the original EU referendum.
Asked for his verdict on the European Court of Justice’s ruling that the UK governemnt could unilaterally revoke the Article 50 notice, Rees-Mogg said it was a ‘scandal’ if it went ahead, and sarcastically claimed that the UK instead could ‘install a dictatorship’.
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Appearing on Sky News, host Kay Burley said that revoking Article 50 could end tensions between the prime minister and her MPs.
But Rees-Mogg likened it to a ‘dictatorship’.
‘We could just ignore all democracy and install a dictatorship but it would be a really shocking approach to take when 17.4 million voted to Leave.
‘When I said dictatorship, it would be an overthrowing of that vote in June 2016, when we decided to leave. The government were suddenly to say ‘we’re revoking Article 50,’ it would be a real scandal.’
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https://twitter.com/OFOCBrexit/status/1025815505645563906
Referring to a People’s Vote, he continued: ‘It would be ignoring the biggest democratic exercise this country ever had which was then reinforced by the general election – in which both the Labour Party and the Conservative party committed to implementing the result of the referendum.
‘Can politicians just say anything and do the reverse? Can they pile lies upon lies?’
In a clip widely-shared Rees-Mogg made the case for two votes during a 2011 Commons debate on an EU referendum.
He argued: ‘It might make more sense to have the second referendum after the renegotiation is completed.’
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