This Is Why A Second Referendum Is A Madcap Idea: Iain Dale

11 January 2018, 16:39

Iain Dale has described suggestions of another referendum on Britain’s EU membership as “madcap”.

He was speaking after fellow LBC presenter Nigel Farage said he was warming to the idea.

The former Ukip leader claimed another Brexit vote would “kill off” the Remain argument for a generation.

But, giving his verdict, Iain argued that Nigel’s comments had undermined the British negotiating position.

He said: “Nigel Farage has spent the last 18 months decrying calls for a second referendum, rightly so in my view and he's done this because he said it would disrespect the views of the 17.4 million people who voted for Brexit.

“We can't have never ending referendums. What do we want? Best of three? Best of five?

“To my mind these are once in a generation activities, you have a referendum and then it's off the table for the next 30 or 40 years.

“We had one in 1975, we had one in 2016, we do not need another one now.”

He continued: “Why would we want to spend another 80 million pounds when 17.4 million people, the most that have backed anything in any referendum or any election in this country in history, we've already made that decision?

“Otherwise we shouldn't be having any referendums in this country if we're just going to have them again and again and again.

“So who benefits here? Well it's certainly not the British negotiating position because by even raising this prospect I believe that Nigel Farage has undermined our negotiating position in Brussels.

“The European Commission will be licking their lips at the prospect of this and it will encourage them to give us a worse deal.”