It may seem odd that a cabal of politicians, celebrities and millionaires can successfully present themselves as a great democratic force and seek to overturn Brexit. But the people behind the People’s Vote have one big advantage: their opponents are in disarray.
Vote Leave ceased campaigning after the referendum. Its organisers felt they had accomplished their mission, and the Conservative government could be trusted to execute Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union. Boris Johnson now describes that decision as an ‘absolutely fatal’ mistake.
As foreign secretary, Johnson admitted to dinner guests earlier this summer that ‘some of us were seduced by high office in government’. He and other key Brexiteers, such as David Davis and Michael Gove, took cabinet positions in a government that was, at best, uncertain about Brexit. The task of campaigning for Brexit thus fell to the European Research Group — made up of Eurosceptic backbenchers — which soon turned into the Jacob Rees-Mogg show. This group’s big aim was to influence the government position but for all Mogg’s merits, what the Brexit cause needed was a campaign group that could reach across the party’s middle. Without Vote Leave, no such thing existed.
The Remain campaign, by contrast, never stopped. In the past two years they have seized the initiative, while Johnson, Davis and others were busy grappling with government. Crucial time was lost.
That at least is how many of the Vote Leave staff — many of whom have spent time in Whitehall recently — feel. They complain about the lack of a ‘pro-Brexit narrative’, while No. 10 has often approached Britain’s withdrawal from the EU as a damage limitation exercise.
The official Remain campaign, Britain Stronger in Europe, morphed into Open Britain.
Comments
Join the debate for just £1 a month
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for £3.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just £1 a monthAlready a subscriber? Log in