Former British MEP Andrew Duff has ruled out a second British EU referendum despite more than four million people signing a petition calling for another chance to vote on the UK’s membership.
Duff, a lifelong Europhile who strongly supported the Remain camp during the recent EU referendum campaign, told this website, “Brexit means Brexit. Out of Europe we go.”
His remarks come after it emerged that the online petition calling for a second EU referendum will be debated in the UK Parliament after it was signed by more than 4.1 million people.
The British parliament’s petitions committee said the debate would be on 5 September as a "huge number" had signed it.
But the committee said the debate did not mean it was supporting the call for a second referendum and it was "too late" to change the referendum rules.
The referendum saw 17.4 million (51.9 per cent) votes cast to leave the EU, compared with 16.1 million (48.1 per cent) for Remain, with a turnout of 72.2 per cent.
Those who signed the petition have already received an email that said the prime minister and government had "been clear that this was a once-in-a-generation vote" and that the decision "must be respected".
The petitions committee is a cross-party group of politicians, independent from the UK government.
A spokesman said, “The committee has decided to schedule a House of Commons debate on this petition. The committee would like to make clear that, in scheduling this debate, they are not supporting the call for a second referendum. The debate will allow MPs to put forward a range of views on behalf of their constituents. At the end of the debate, a government minister will respond to the points raised.”
The debate will not have the power to change the law and will not end with the House of Commons deciding whether or not to have a second referendum.
The petition – which was opened on 25 May, well before the Brexit ballot– calls for the referendum rules to be changed but, according to the committee spokesman, it is now too late for the rules to be changed retrospectively.
The spokesman said, “It will be up to the government to decide whether it wants to start the process of agreeing a new law for a second referendum.”
Reacting to the news, Duff, a former Liberal ALDE group MEP and a renowned constitutional expert, said, “The petition was raised by a Brexiteer who expected to be defeated in the referendum.
“He objected to the absence of rules about qualified thresholds and turnout. He was preparing to be a bad loser.”
Duff added, “There will be no second referendum – not least because the experience of the first has been so ghastly. Remember Jo Cox?”
He said, “Now that the perpetrator of the referendum, David Cameron, has been dispatched into oblivion in disgrace, the imperative is to return to constitutional normality.
“That means a general election once there are enough Labour MPs to vote for the dissolution of Parliament. To overturn the result of the 23 June vote without a general election would add insult to injury and provoke a democratic reaction that could amount to revolution.”
The petition was investigated for fraud last month and 77,000 signatures that were found to be false were removed.
It was considered for a parliamentary debate by the petitions committee because it had received more than 100,000 signatures.