General Election: Mid Bedfordshire candidates say no to second Brexit referendum

Earlier this month, when explaining why he was standing in Clacton, “Brexit architect” Nigel Farage said: “I’ve changed my mind, it’s allowed you know.”

With this in mind, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) asked the candidates at a hustings in Wixams (June 22) if “changing your mind is allowed” whether there should be another EU referendum.

Labour’s candidate, Maahwish Mirza, said: “I don’t think that we should have another EU referendum right now.

“I think the cost of that would be so astronomical, I don’t think that our country needs to go through that again right now when people are struggling to pay their bills right now, when working people are having to use food banks. I think the instability and the polarisation that we’ve seen over the last couple of years has been detrimental to our democracy.

“We need to get back to sensible governance… actually put the public interest first. That doesn’t mean that we don’t renegotiate our trade agreements with the European Union. That is part of bringing back a sensible approach to government.

“But revisiting a referendum, I just don’t think that’s what the country needs right now,” she said.

Blake Stephenson, the Conservative candidate, said: “It’s interesting the Labour candidate said right now, so I think in the back of the Labour’s candidate mind is ‘let’s have another referendum’.”

Off mic, Ms Mirza denied saying “right now”.

“I don’t think it should happen at all, Mr Stephenson said. “We have decided to leave and we should make the most of it collectively as a team, as a country, as one moving forwards. The EU has done nothing but regulate, regulate, regulate. Businesses are wrapped up in red tape and they are struggling to get their businesses off the ground.

“I decided that we should leave the EU because we need to take the opportunity to unravel some of that red tape and create a more dynamic economy that can compete in a really challenging complex global world.

“[Brexit] is a generational change. I think we need to give the project a chance,” he said.

Richard Brunning (SDP) said: “No, trade with Europe, with the EU is at record levels.

“There’s been some red tape, I’ve been a victim of it myself with my business. It can be an absolute pain… but to have another referendum, to go through, as Labour quite rightly said, to go through the rigmarole of another referendum so soon after the previous one, realistically it is a no, I don’t think so.”

Reform UK’s candidate, Dave Holland, said it would be nice to seize the “Brexit benefits before [we] give up on it”.

He said: “Because, as we’ve already heard, trade is at record levels in spite of the Conservative government not really wanting to seize any of the benefits of Brexit. I mean the first thing we could do is control our borders, that would be a start, wouldn’t it? So it’s a no from me.”

Gareth Mackey said a referendum tends to be used to settle large constitutional questions.

“To rewrite a constitution every few years I think is ridiculous,” he said. “Particularly when the first one was held to sort out problems in the Conservative Party and well, let’s face it, look where that has got them.

“The time has come to sort out our relationship with Europe. I think we were fools to exit from the economic community, absolutely ridiculous to shoot ourselves in the foot because we wanted to prove a point. You don’t do that with your largest trading partner.

“So no, I would not want to see a revisit of the referendum just yet. But people can change their minds and if a government got in which campaigned on the fact that it was in their manifesto to redo [the referendum]

“Then I would support it,” he said.

The Green Party candidate, Cade Sibley said: “I think generally based on the polls if we had the choice in going back into the EU the majority of people would go back in.

“We know that Brexit has actually killed many small businesses because it’s made trading harder. I know that by trying to get things from Europe myself, certain companies won’t even ship here anymore.

“The Green Party wants to rejoin the trading block and have better ties with Europe, And rebuild the relationship, hopefully on better terms.

“I think we’ve realised that you know we were made so many promises from the Tories about how much money it would [save] us. A lot of the benefits and the promises that were made weren’t true.

“And hopefully over time we will be able to rebuild that relationship,” he said.

The Lib Dem candidate, Stuart Roberts, was unable to attend the hustings due to a long term prior commitment.

In a message to the LDRS he wrote: “My view is that given the damage that was done from the first referendum this is not the time to hold a second referendum.

“However this is the time [as stated in the Lib Dem manifesto] to repair the damaged relationship we have with our nearest neighbours and remove as many barriers to trade as possible.”

The candidates for the election on July 4 are:

Richard Brunning – SDPDave Holland – Reform UKGareth Mackey – IndependentMaahwish Mirza – LabourStuart Roberts – Lib DemCade Sibley – Green PartyBlake Stephenson – Conservative