• OUR Lib Dem group has put forward a motion, to be voted on at full council on Monday October 8, asking all Camden councillors to formally support a people’s vote with the option to Remain.

Councillors from across the borough should support this. Camden residents voted overwhelming to stay in the European Union on June23 2016, with 71 per cent opting to Remain.

We have since learned that the Leave campaign cheated on its electoral expenses. We also know that, by its own admission, Leave lied to voters about the country’s prospects if they voted for Brexit, including with the promise to fund the NHS to the tune of an extra £350million a week.

Instead we are already paying £500million a week for the cost of leaving! This has serious implications for the council’s own budget.

As the cabinet member for finance and transformation revealed recently, Brexit has been added as a risk factor when considering the variety of risks posed to the council’s finances.

Camden Labour will tell residents that they have put forward their own motion. No one should be fooled into thinking this is a genuine motion on a people’s vote; unlike ours.

Instead it is the Labour Party’s policy, which is a fudge. It amounts to no more than a plan to try and force a general election rather than a referendum. Should the Labour Party win power nationally, it has made no commitment to hold a people’s vote afterwards.

It would rather restart the Brexit negotiations, with a cherry-picking approach that is no more likely to succeed than what the Tories are currently doing.

We appeal to residents from across the political spectrum who wish to have a final say on the Brexit negotiations to write to your local councillors before Monday and ask them to support the Liberal Democrat motion.

If Camden Council votes in favour, it will add to the growing number of voices in support of a people’s vote.

In turn that will help build the momentum to allow such a vote to take place and give us the chance to avoid an act of immense national and local self-harm.

CLLR LUISA PORRITT
Motion Proposer

CLLR FLICK REA
Motion Seconder

CLLR TOM SIMON
Liberal Democrat Group