Brighton & Hove Liberal Democrats Chair: Michael Wilbur Please reply to: [email protected] 31st January 2017 To: Caroline Lucas, M.P. for Brighton Pavilion; Simon Kirby M.P. for Brighton Kemptown and Peter Kyle M.P. for Hove An open letter to the Members of Parliament for Brighton and Hove, Dear Caroline, Simon and Peter, We write to you to tell you about an initiative we have undertaken with other local Liberal Democrat activists amongst your constituents in our City. We have been promoting a petition with the following wording: ‘A narrow Leave vote does not give Theresa May a blank cheque to take away the UK's membership of the single market and our rights to live, work, and travel freely in Europe. If the Government won't give us a referendum on the destination of Brexit, we call on our three Brighton and Hove MPs to vote against the triggering of Article 50.’ We have collected hundreds of signatures already and we will continue to collect them until the very last minute before the final vote on Article 50 in the House of Commons. We acknowledge the work that Caroline Lucas and Peter Kyle have already done to prevent the worst form of ‘hard’ Brexit being forced through by a Conservative government that appears to have been ‘captured’ by its UKIP tendency. Caroline has spoken out and tabled several reasoned amendments to the Article 50 Bill that is currently being debated. Peter has also spoken forcefully for a Brexit that protects the benefits of being in the EU that are especially important to us in the city of Brighton and Hove. He was also one of only 23 Labour M.P.’s to vote against the earlier motion in the House of Commons setting this arbitrary timetable for invoking Article 50. We, like you, are democrats and we respect the views expressed in the referendum on June 23rd, not just the 52% who voted to leave but the 48% who wish to remain (and 68% in our city). We believe that if one referendum is good then two must be better. After the negotiations with the EU have proceeded and concrete proposals are available, we believe that the people should be given a chance to approve the results based on actual terms rather than the predictions and promises that were all that was available in June 2016. We see this as the clearest way to respect the views of the electorate, whether they voted to leave or remain. In the light of this we and the signatories to our petition urge you to vote against the implementation of article 50 and the irreversible process towards an exit from the EU unless a clear commitment is given by the government to consult the people in a referendum before the final break with the EU. Emily Tester, LibDem Parliamentary Candidate for Brighton Kemptown Caroline Hynds, LibDem Parliamentary Candidate for Hove Paul Chandler, LibDem Parliamentary Candidate for Brighton Pavilion .