16,000 of Raab’s constituents have signed the “Revoke Article 50” petition
Beyond tribal politics
A week is a long time in politics, even at a time of stability and good government. Now, it feels like an eternity. Less than a week ago, the Prime Minister addressed the nation and told them “I am on your side”. Since then, over five and a half million people have signed the petition to revoke Article 50 and over a million people took to the streets of London on Saturday on the People’s Vote March.
Not only was the Prime Minister’s reading of the British public mood misguided, her viewpoint – the polarising “who’s side are you on?” rhetoric – belongs to an old kind of politics. The marchers on Saturday were addressed by MPs from across the political spectrum – from Jo Swinson, Anna Soubry, and Caroline Lucas, to Nicola Sturgeon, Sadiq Kahn and Jess Phillips. The former Attorney General Dominic Grieve also spoke; last week, he responded to the Prime Minister’s speech by telling the Commons that he had “never been so ashamed to be a member of the Conservative Party”.
The flowering of committed, principled cross-party support for a People’s Vote and the co-operation between the Liberal Democrats, the Scottish National Party, Plaid Cymru, the Green Party and the Independent Group demonstrates the democratic potential of moving beyond tribal politics. It is a heartening glimmer of hope during this unprecedented time of national crisis.
Possibly the most important speech of the afternoon came from Tory grandee Lord Heseltine, who – along with an emotional defence of the importance of the European Union to our peace and prosperity – rightly described Theresa May’s speech to the nation last week as an “affront to parliamentary democracy”.
“Never forget that this place is the custodian of our freedoms,” Lord Heseltine said. “Never forget the intolerance and worse that comes from other forms of government”.
The Prime Ministerial thing to do would have been to respond with humility, to signal that she had heard the anger of the marchers and the speakers and to move towards healing the deep divisions in the country, which her party has provoked and entrenched, and step away from “intolerance and worse.” Instead, the very next day, she summoned 13 Brexiteers to Chequers for talks to try, yet again, to save her deal. Yet again, she has demonstrated how recklessly unable and unwilling she is to put country above party.
Our local MP, Dominic Raab, was one of those invited to Chequers. An architect of the Leave campaign, a member of the hard-right European Research Group and a former Brexit Secretary, he is as responsible as the Prime Minister for the state we are now in. Yet he represents a constituency that voted overwhelmingly in the 2016 Referendum to remain in the European Union.
But a quiet revolution is underway in this part of Surrey. On Saturday, hundreds of Raab’s constituents – young and old, from Claude who is 92 to Tom who is 7, myself and my family included – travelled from across Esher and Walton to join the People’s Vote March. They came from all of the old political ‘colours’ and joined in protest at what is being done to their country. As one resident wrote on my timeline recently, addressing the Esher and Walton Conservatives, after another wave of protest against Dominic Raab: ‘Wasn’t it easy when you had a pro-European candidate for a pro-European constituency.’
As I write, over 16,000 of Raab’s constituents (*) have signed the “Revoke Article 50” petition, a phenomenal number that puts us in the top 10 of responses from Tory-held seats. Those 16,000 signatories represent 20% of Raab’s electorate, and 26% of the last electorate turn-out in the General Election of 2017.
Dominic Raab may think he has nothing to lose by ignoring them: Esher and Walton has always been, after all, a safe Tory seat.
He may want to think again.
* To view the latest figures click here