How deliciously tempting it must be to do as the Times and FT has done today, along with many others since last Friday, and try to interpret the election result as somehow a vote against Brexit – or against the withdrawal from the single market. ‘The notion of a ‘hard’ (to be precise, a dogmatic and ideologically driven) Brexit should be promptly abandoned’, asserts a leader in the Times, echoing the sentiments of Tim Farron, Nicola Sturgeon, Ruth Davidson and many others.
How tempting – and how utterly wrong. The claim that the election result somehow undoes last year’s referendum result runs counter to the obvious evidence: that 84 per cent of the electorate voted for parties whose manifestos were committed to enacting the instructions of the British people in full. While anti-Brexiteers were chirping away yesterday, John McDonnell was on television confirming that Labour will support the Conservatives in withdrawing from the single market.
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