AN OUTSPOKEN Pershore councillor has called for voters to have their say on the UK’s final Brexit deal and to be given the option to remain in the European Union as part of a so-called People’s Vote.
Liberal Democrat Coun Charles Tucker spoke out and slammed the chaos in the Government and the Conservative Party which he claimed ‘threatens to wreck our country’.
The Observer reported last week on town MP Harriett Baldwin’s support for Prime Minister Theresa May’s deal for the UK to leave the European Union despite turmoil within the party which has led to numerous resignations including Brexit Secretary David Davis and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.
Mrs Baldwin hailed Mrs May as the ‘right person’ for the job and Coun Tucker said the Prime Minister had tried valiantly to reconcile the irreconcilable but her efforts appeared to be in vain.
“The fact is that you cannot have Brexit without either inflicting huge damage on our country – hard Brexit or no deal – or consigning ourselves to a semi-detached limbo where we have no say in the relationship and become rule takers, not rule makers,” he said.
“In this I agree with Boris Johnson – we risk becoming a vassal state, in impotent orbit around the EU.
“But let’s not blame the EU, this is our doing. It is self-inflicted and completely our own fault. You cannot expect 27 countries to change their rules to keep one country happy. The EU can absorb the damage of a hard brexit far more readily than we can.
Coun Tucker, who represents Pershore on the town council and on Wychavon District Council, said no deal between the UK and the EU would mean chaos at our borders with immediate imposition of customs checks – something for which the UK was completely unprepared.
“The chaos will hit every business which exports or imports goods, including the majority of our food. It means everyone driving on the Continent having to apply for an International Driving Permit. Who thinks for a second our government is ready to deal with several million applications a year for these permits?,” he said.
“The gridlock in Government shows it is incapable of putting country above party. This can only be resolved by giving the decision back to the people through a People’s Vote, which must include the only sensible option – to stay within the EU,” he added.
