27 Nov #4years4months: It’s time to ask the public what lies beyond the Brexit deal
Get Brexit Done’ is an empty slogan obscuring what lies ahead of us.
If Boris Johnson is voted back into power with a majority, his Brexit withdrawal agreement will be passed by January 31, just two months into a five-year fixed term for his party.
The public will then face four years and 4 months of a Tory government, until the next scheduled election under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 set to take place on Thursday May 2, 2024.
That’s 52 months. 1552 days.
These are stark numbers, and ones that nobody seems to be speaking about right now. If you haven’t thought of the General Election from this perspective, it turns out you’re not alone.
Today Campaign Together is launching a listening exercise to find out what that will mean for the public – asking them about their hopes and fears about what could happen during that time. To carry this out we will be launching a survey, using the hashtag #4years4months and reaching out both online and offline to members of the public to collect and then share their views.
Founder Sam Coates said: “Whether it’s a Tory- or Labour-led government, by this time next year the Withdrawal Agreement will be history. Unfortunately all the focus has been on the short-term, meaning that the public – and potential voters – haven’t had the chance to properly think about what lies beyond Boris Johnson’s supposedly ‘oven-ready’ deal.
“We want to provide them with the chance to consider the long-term implications of electing a majority Conservative government. For us it means years of further Brexit negotiations, an NHS at risk from US private interests, public services likely to continue being underfunded, and much more – all overseen by a Prime Minister who through his repeated lies this General Election has only actually guaranteed that he can’t be trusted.”
Campaign Together is a grassroots organisation – without party affiliation or big-money backers – whose only priority is to deny the Tories a majority government. During their first General Election in 2017 they mobilised 5000 canvassers and succeeded in 24 of their 25 target seats.”
