The threats posed by Brexit, including to NHS and hospitality sector recruitment, were highlighted by Green councillor Ollie Sykes as he called for a People’s Vote.
He proposed a motion asking the council to write to the government calling for a second vote in Brexit – Britain’s departure from the European Union – at a meeting of Brighton and Hove City Council.
He also called on officials to spell out the impact of Brexit in each policy report to council committees.
Councillor Sykes said that it was “important for this country and this city” as he also asked officials for a specific report on the strategic impacts that might arise from Brexit.
He said: “How did we get into this mess? In 2016 this country’s leadership was served a pig in a poke.
“People had no idea what Brexit they were buying and how difficult it would be.
“Two years down the line the chorus against Brexit gets louder and louder.”
He cited Conservative politicians calling for a people’s vote, quoting Sir John Major saying this week how no form of Brexit would match up to the “fantasies” of the leave campaign.
Fellow Green councillor Lizzie Deane said: “Plunging the NHS into crisis has seen a 94 per cent drop in nursing recruitment in one year.
“With a ‘no deal’ Brexit increasingly likely, what we will probably get is an end to holiday health insurance and an end to free movement which applies to us as well as our neighbours.”
She described Prime Minister Theresa May as sending the nation to bed without any supper or a bedtime story as punishment for voting Brexit.
The Labour council leader Daniel Yates said: “This is the defining political matter for our generation. This is the single biggest political change.
“This should be of concern to all groups as guardians and custodians of this city.”
Conservative opposition leader Tony Janio said that he would not support the motion as it would require offering the people a multiple choice question rather than a yes or no.
He said: “No one knows what will happen until the Prime Minister does the deal.
“We have the most stoic people in the universe who will got on with their lives.”
Councillors voted 24 to 19 in support of the motion in a free vote, with two abstentions.
Ten months ago the council wrote to government minister Sajid Javid when he was the Communities and Local Government Secretary asking for a second referendum on the final details of Brexit.
A new letter will go to his replacement James Brokenshire.
At the same meeting at Hove Town Hall on Thursday (18 October), Green councillor Louise Greenbaum also submitted a 1,399-signature petition asking for a “ratification referendum” with an option to remain in the EU.
Ok What happens if second vote is awarded and the vote goes 52-48 in favour of stay Doe you think the people who voted to leave will except that ???? I don’t think so do you Just accept the will of the majority
“How did we get into this mess? In 2016 this country’s leadership was served a pig in a poke.”
What a question for a politician to ask!!!
We got into this mess because the public were kept in the dark about what it meant to join the ECC in the early 1970’s and that what was said then behind the scenes has come to be the truth that Britain would become subservient to the un-elected in Europe.
Have a google search for FCO 30/1048 which is a Government Foreign and Commonwealth Document that has been kept secret since before the original decisions to join the ECC.
The question about do we want to leave has been asked and answered.
If there were a second vote the question would need to be ‘with a deal’ or ‘without a deal’.
To do that a new referendum bill will have to clear parliament.
Can’t see that happening in a timely manner…
The councillors, as individuals, may do as they wish but the MAY NOT speak for all the residents of the city. They have no mandate to do that.
I have just emailed James Brokenshire MP asking him to ignore the letter as being from a partisan set of councillors that does not represent the feelings of all the citizens of the city.
Thankfully Ollie SYKES aka Phelims poodle won’t be standing for election next time so we won’t have to listen to his drivel any more 😄
Yes. We should stay in Europe I love going to magaluf on my holidays. More benefits would be good to. Gary
get jezzer in – stay in europe, more benefits for people like me who cant work, more immigration, tax the rich = better life