WHAT a mess. Over four years since the British people voted to leave the EU and here we are with January 1 fast approaching, and still no trade deal with the EU in sight.  

Scrolling through social media, the finger of blame has been pointed at David Cameron for holding the referendum in the first place, those who voted Leave, and Boris Johnson for not delivering the deal he claimed was “oven ready” during the 2019 general election. 

But is this mess really their doing or should those who wish to apportion blame be looking elsewhere?

Campaigning for an EU referendum was not new. In the run-up to the general election of 1983, the Labour Party Led by Michael Foot was pushing for, among other things, withdrawal from the European Economic Community. 

This was part of the Labour manifesto that was described by then Labour MP Gerald Kaufman as the “longest suicide note in history.” 

In 1997, four years after the European Economic Community became the European Union, Sir James Goldsmith of the Referendum Party failed with his election campaign on the pledge to hold a referendum on whether Britain should be a member of the EU, receiving less than 3 per cent of the vote.
 
When Cameron announced that the EU referendum would be held in July 2016, he denied it was due to the surge of the UK Independence Party (Ukip), claiming instead that the Conservatives had committed to an in/out vote in their 2010 election manifesto. 

Yet it wasn’t until 2014 when Ukip secured the most votes in the European parliamentary elections, that the Conservative Party pushed ahead with the referendum, suggesting the popularity of Ukip did have a major influence on his decision.

Four years on from the referendum and still Remainers are pointing to the lies told by the Leave camp. 

Lies like the £350 million a week for the NHS and claims that Turkey would soon be joining the EU, implying millions more people would be coming to Britain. 

However, Remainers, too, contributed to the misinformation that was being spewed out. 

For example, the Remain camp claimed that the plan to form an EU army was pure fantasy. 

Yet in 2018 Angela Merkel along with Emmanuel Macron joined other politicians calling for exactly that, an EU-wide army.

However, I would suggest the Remain camp used the “fear factor” more than lies to try to influence the electorate. 

When the Leave camp claimed that they would get a trade deal with the US, Cameron wheeled out the US president Barack Obama to say Britain would be going to be the back of the queue if it left the EU.

So much for that “special relationship” proclaimed regularly — normally when the US is looking to invade somewhere.

Yet, regardless of all the intimidation, the opinion polls didn’t appear to move in the direction of Remain.  

So with the last roll of the dice, George Osborne, then chancellor of the Exchequer, threatened that if people voted to leave the EU, the following day he would instigate an emergency Budget that would “slash public spending and increase taxes.” 

Despite Osborne’s threat, and Vote Leave winning, the following day that emergency Budget never materialised.

The loss of the EU referendum forced Cameron to step down because as an anti-Brexit politician and strong Remainer, he didn’t believe it was right for him to try to negotiate a Brexit deal. A good point for which I believe he deserves respect. 

So, knowing Cameron’s reason for stepping down, who did the Conservatives elect as the leader to “get the deal done”? A Remainer MP, Theresa May. 

How can anyone that doesn’t believe in a project commit heart and soul to get the best deal to make that project work? 

They can’t and May was no exception, which led to another Tory leadership battle resulting in Boris Johnson becoming the leader in July 2019.

With the possibility of halting Brexit exhausted, if there was a general election there was a real possibility for Britain to leave the EU on a socialist platform rather than a capitalist one. 

After all, Jeremy Corbyn had given his word that if Labour formed a government, it would honour the result of the EU referendum, right? 

To the delight of many, that opportunity came only months later when Johnson announced a general election would be held in December 2019.

With the keys to 10 Downing Street as the prize, Corbyn as leader was persuaded to change the party’s Brexit stance. 

No longer would Labour honour the 2016 EU referendum result. Instead, it promised to give the people a vote on the final deal, including the option to remain in the EU.

Labour went to the electorate expecting those who voted Leave to believe that — even though Labour campaigned to Remain and is full of pro-EU MPs and had broken its promise to honour the EU result if it formed a government — Labour would “try very hard” to get a good deal but then put that deal to the people, with the opportunity to overturn the EU referendum result and remain in the EU. 

By contrast, the Tory Party that has a vast majority of pro-Brexit MPs all chomping at the bit to implement a right-wing Brexit, ran with the slogan “Get Brexit done.”

Was it not obvious to Labour that by breaking its promise, at the general election, voters who placed Brexit above any domestic policies would vote Tory to be sure the EU referendum result was honoured, rather than risk voting Labour which was trying, in all but name, to hold a second EU referendum? 

A suspicious person might suggest it was.

However, things could have turned out differently for both parties with a little forethought. 

If Cameron wanted to be totally “democratic” he could have run the EU referendum stipulating that to leave the EU, Vote Leave must be the majority vote in all four countries that make up the UK. 

If he had, with only England and Wales voting to leave, the UK would still be in the EU.

Things could have been completely different for Labour, too, if it had run the general election campaign keeping its promise to honour the EU referendum. 

If it had, I sincerely believe Jeremy Corbyn could have been prime minister today. 

Was that the problem? Instead, it appeared they were trying to deceive the public by trying to overturn the EU referendum result. 

Facts don’t lie. Of the 54 seats Labour lost to the Conservatives, 52 were in areas that voted Leave in the 2016 referendum.

So who is to blame? Those who voted Leave in 2016? The Tory Party not thinking through the process of the EU referendum? Or for so far failing to negotiate a trade deal with the EU? 

Or is it the traditional Labour voter who voted Tory in the 2019 general election to ensure Britain left the EU? 

Or is it the Labour Party that reneged on its promise to honour the result of the referendum? 

I know who I blame and it’s not David Cameron.​