Opinion

Calls for unity over the most divisive issue of our generation are futile

The Labour Party features once again on the front page of the Evening Standard today for all the wrong reasons as George Osborne uses divisions over Brexit policy to put the boot in.

Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer is reported as saying the party is split down the middle over its key Europe policy.

The news comes after Theresa May was accused of being “too busy negotiating with her own cabinet to negotiate Brexit” in Prime Minister’s Questions.

Whichever way you look there are splits in politics over one of the most divisive issues of our generation.

The Labour Party is no more or less split than the Conservatives on Brexit, and while the Liberal Democrats have been praised for providing a united front in opposition on Brexit it should be noted that they are a party that use the oxygen of opposition on single issues to fuel their popularity.

In realty, they are offering up few real counter policies.

Even key Leave campaigners are divided on the right way forward, which begs the question of why such a seismic decision was ever allowed to be made on a 48/52 referendum.

Britain as a nation is pulling in two different directions on an issue that should have required an overwhelming majority to even consider pursuing.

According to the latest Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI opinion poll voters are divided on the Government’s approach to Brexit, the Border issue and its future approach to the negotiations, with just over a third saying the government is doing a good job, a third disagreeing and 29 per cent saying they don’t know.

It all goes to show that calls for unity, regardless of where they are flung, are completely futile when it concerns an issue as divisive as this.

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Jack Peat

Jack is a business and economics journalist and the founder of The London Economic (TLE). He has contributed articles to VICE, Huffington Post and Independent and is a published author. Jack read History at the University of Wales, Bangor and has a Masters in Journalism from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

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