Yesterday Birmingham City Council formally approved a motion to support a People’s Vote with an option to Remain in the EU, provided a) that any deal reached by the Conservative government was rejected by Parliament and b) that there was no possibility of a general election being called in this scenario.
A petition of almost 2000 signatures, from all parts of Birmingham, collected by local campaigners, EU in Brum , was presented to support the motion, which was tabled by Birmingham Liberal Democrat councillor Jon Hunt.
The motion initially called for the City Council to commit to a People’s Vote with an option to Remain, but the Labour leader of the council, Ian Ward, called for the inclusion of the provision of a general election. The compromise was enough to secure the votes, illustrated by a show of hands in the Chamber, of a majority of the Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green councillors in the room, after a series of passionate speeches from voices such as Mike Ward, Morriam Jan, Paul Tilsley, Julien Pritchard, Sir Albert Bore and Martin Straker-Welds
You can watch the debate on Birmingham City Council’s streaming service here Go to no 10 on the agenda – the debate starts at 04.38hrs into the meeting.
This vote is symbolic because this is the largest local authority in Europe and because this is a local authority which very narrowly voted to Leave in 2016.
It follows on from Channel 4’s programme on Monday evening, hosted live from Birmingham that revealed a new Survation poll which showed that if the referendum question was asked now, Remain would win 54% to 46% Leave. Drilling into the detail, it shows that Birmingham would now vote to Remain too: you can see for yourself https://www.survation.com/what-does-the-british-public-now-think-about-brexit/
Moseley Liberal Democrats played a big part in helping the Birmingham Liberal Democrat group to bring this motion to the Council. Once again Liberal Democrats are at the forefront of making things happen .
We would like to thank every one of you who signed the petition, everybody who helped Izzy tirelessly to get signatures, Councillor Jon Hunt for putting the motion forward and Councillor Fred Grindrod for helping to develop cross-party support for the People’s Vote principle.
Now, we must move on to persuading other Birmingham MPs and our Metro Mayor: already, we have seen Yardley MP Jess Phillips joining the People’s Vote campaign, and our own MP Roger Godsiff in Hall Green also calling for a Peoples vote
This again is a symbolic action, because Mr Godsiff becomes the first MP who supported a Leave vote to support the idea of a People’s Vote. But it shows he is responding to the level of campaigning and concern from his constituents.
Izzy is organising a non party affiliated Hall Green Constituency Peoples Vote group. Join her and other campaigners at The Village Pub, Moseley on Thursday 15th November from 7pm or contact her izzyknowles@gmail.com
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