It seems a long time ago since 23rd June 2016 when the people of the UK, (or at least the people of England and Wales) voted to leave the EU.
At the time, we had a Conservative government led by David Cameron and under his leadership, the government believed that we should stay in the UK.
They produced a leaflet which caused a lot of controversy at the time entitled ‘why the government believes that voting to remain in the European union is the best interest for the UK’. It was sent to every household and was paid for by the government.
Read the government’s argument for remaining in the EU, here.
When you read the leaflet it’s surprising so many people actually did vote to leave the EU given its pro-EU stance. But vote they did and through the will of the people, the result saw a massive turnover—72.2 percent of the confirmed electorate voted. This was in fact it the highest turnout of any vote in the UK since 1992 when the Conservative government of the time was elected (72.3 percent).
The will of the people
In the pre-Brexit vote leaflet, there was one paragraph that stood out: ‘This is your decision. The Government will implement what you decide.’
It did not turn out as straight forward as that, however thanks to PM Theresa May, the government under her leadership has followed the will of the people. Parliament voted by 494 to 122 to back the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill and has achieved this with a large majority.
Now that the UK Parliament have decided to uphold the UK Brexit referendum whether you agree with this decision of not, it’s democratic, it’s the will of the people and it’s happening.