The People’s Vote campaign made a mistake, but it wasn’t deliberate

A few months ago, the People’s Vote campaign was on the fringe of the national conversation. Today, we are seen by an ever-growing number of MPs as the best – perhaps only – way forward to break out of the current political impasse. As it becomes more likely that the British people will be given the right to have the final say about whether they wish to proceed with a Brexit that can never fulfil the promises made in the referendum of 2016 – or offer terms as good as the deal we’ve already got in the EU – we accept that the media will subject our every statement to increased scrutiny. And, like any campaign, we will make mistakes from time to time. Ross Clark pointed one of these out on Coffee House. In a paper we published earlier this month, ‘Why Norway Plus Won’t Work’, we made a factual error, stating in the executive summary that if were to join the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) we “would send money to the EU but have no influence over how that money is spent.”

This was inaccurate because, as the paper set out clearly later on, EFTA members contribute to a compulsory instrument known as the EEA Financial Mechanism and are responsible for where the money goes.