The Rejoin EU Party has made its first electoral breakthrough in British politics with the election of a local councillor in Oxfordshire. Party chairman Andrew Smith, 55, was one of three candidates elected to the parish council in Goring-on-Thames, South Oxfordshire, in last Thursday’s by-election contested by six candidates in total.
The party has hailed Andrew’s success as evidence of the increasing appetite of voters to re-join the EU, as more people realise that leaving the bloc was a mistake.
Cllr Smith said:
“We wanted to see how the Rejoin EU Party’s brand would play out in an area modestly in favour of the Remain campaign and local voters have given us a ringing endorsement. I wanted our message to be clearly on the ballot and it has given us a real boost.
“I got about 44% of the vote, which indicates that re-joining the EU is not a poisoned chalice – in fact, it shows that facing reality and acknowledging that Brexit has failed and we need to reverse it is clearly a vote-winner.”
Former member of the European Parliament and Rejoin EU Party supporter, Brendan Donnelly, said the result was very encouraging for the party and its ideas.
“More and more voters are becoming uneasy about Brexit,” he said. “The political elite of this country need to wake up to this change. Brexit can and will be undone much sooner than they realise.”
Party leader Richard Hewison said:
“Never was the phrase ‘great oaks from little acorns grow’ more pertinent. This clear victory builds on the polling success the Rejoin EU Party has already had in other elections, such as those for the London Mayor and London Assembly in 2021, various parliamentary by-elections and this May’s local-council elections.
“The fact that 44% of the electorate were happy to endorse re-joining the EU on the ballot paper demonstrates the Tories’ hard Brexit is an abject failure, that Labour’s fears of backing a return to the EU are unfounded and that the Liberal Democrats need to be bolder in their support for returning to the EU.
“If these parties are serious about winning a general election and restoring the country’s economy, prosperity and international political influence, they clearly need to re-think their Brexit positions.”
The Rejoin EU party is campaigning to re-join the EU because we believe the UK belongs at the heart of Europe and re-joining is the only way to solve the problems Brexit has created. Brexit is broken and it’s breaking our country too. All the promises on which Brexit was sold to the electorate in 2016 are now increasingly exposed as fantasy. Far from bringing the promised reduction in red tape and bureaucracy and providing £350m a week for the NHS, Brexit makes trading with the crucial European market more complex, difficult and expensive and threatens to reduce funding for public services. Sectors such as farming, fisheries & financial services, supposed to benefit from Brexit, now face an uncertain future.
Ed: West England Bylines does not support any particular political party but gives voice to all progressive parties.
