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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2019
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"What many people have said to me over the last month or so is that they didn't vote for a deal, they voted for leave."
Jacob Rees-Mogg
January 15, 2019
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London -- In these last two days, the House of Commons has taken two headline votes. Both grew out of the referendum on the UK's membership in the European Union of June 2016. Both were momentous. And yet, ironically, neither was decisive.
Yesterday, January 15, the House voted on the agreement Prime Minister May had reached with her EU counterparts on the terms of Britain's leaving the European Union. That measure was resoundingly defeated: 432 to 202. Earlier today, the House voted on a motion of no-confidence in Mrs. May's government. It too was defeated. Mrs. May carried the day by a vote of 325 to 306. Yet, ironically, neither of those votes was decisive. Mrs. May could well face more "no confidence" votes, and the final, real consequence of the referendum-that is, the nature of the future relationship between the UK and the EU-is as unclear as ever.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, the author of today's featured quote, is a member of Parliament, a Conservative, from the southwest corner of England - North East Somerset to be precise. He is also one of the strongest voices in support of the United Kingdom clearly, cleanly, and definitively leaving the European Union. He was interviewed yesterday on "Good Morning Britain." At that point, the vote on Mrs. May's deal with the EU had not yet occurred, but its failure was widely anticipated. And so, he was asked not only about the then-upcoming vote but also, assuming it would go as it did, would not Mrs. May then have to go?
"No," said Mr. Rees-Mogg, "I don't think so." He continued:
Everyone knows that the European issue is a particularly divisive one, not just within the Conservative party but across political parties. There are many views. It is also clear that the House of Commons knows more clearly what it doesn't want than what it does want. So, although there's no majority for this deal, it's hard to see that there is a majority for any deal at the moment. And that, in a way, is not the fault of the government.
Questioned about various issues that might have been in the minds of those who voted to leave back in June 2016, Mr. Rees-Mogg said:
They voted to leave the European Union and that leaving the European Union opens up all those things [mentioned by the interviewer]: control of fish, getting out of the European Court of Justice jurisdiction, not paying all the money. All that is leaving. And what many people have said to me over the last month or so is that they didn't vote for a deal; they voted for leave.
And the problem with the House of Commons is about three-quarters of the House of Commons voted to remain. And, therefore, you've got a remainer House of Commons trying to implement a "leave" that it doesn't want. And that's why you've got no agreement on the deal.
From the leaver point of view, it's very straightforward. We leave, and a deal is secondary to the issue of leaving.
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Brexit shares something with American politics - not just the election of Donald Trump in 2016 but just about any U.S. election in the post-World War II period, and it is this: everyone has a view. Like Britons, most Americans, for example, are either leavers or remainers. And for leavers particularly, Mr. Rees-Mogg's comment that "a deal is secondary" is clear enough. Some, we suspect, also harbor the view that the UK would have had a stronger hand if the British government had assumed the reality of a no-deal departure from the outset.
What is less clear-not obscure but less clear-is how the Brexiteers view Mrs. May. But there is no mystery there either. They might be unhappy with how Mrs. May has handled the Brexit negotiations, but they far prefer her leadership to that of Jeremy Corbyn, her Labor party challenger. Indeed, in a subsequent interview, Mr. Rees-Mogg said plainly that, if the choice were betweeen a bad deal negotiated by Theresa May or a bad deal from Jeremy Corbyn, he would choose Mrs. May's deal.
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A BBC Interview takes you to an interview in which Mr. Rees-Mogg makes clear his preference for a Theresa May deal versus one negotiated by Jeremy Corbyn.
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