{"id":135125,"date":"2023-10-24T07:40:26","date_gmt":"2023-10-24T07:40:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/allmybiznews.com\/?p=135125"},"modified":"2023-10-24T07:40:26","modified_gmt":"2023-10-24T07:40:26","slug":"top-brexiteer-says-eu-referendum-should-have-needed-60-vote-to-leave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/allmybiznews.com\/politics\/top-brexiteer-says-eu-referendum-should-have-needed-60-vote-to-leave\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Brexiteer says EU referendum should have needed 60% vote to leave"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Leading Brexiteer Steve Baker has said the EU referendum should have required a 60 percent vote to leave.<\/p>\n

The Northern Ireland Office minister acknowledged his side would have failed under a supermajority.<\/p>\n

But he said such a threshold would have removed the issue of politicians not accepting the result.<\/p>\n

Mr Baker told the 65th plenary of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly (BIPA): “One regret is it probably should have been a supermajority.<\/p>\n

“That’s a huge thing for me to say, because if it had been a supermajority we’d have lost and we’d still be in.<\/p>\n

“But the reason I say that is if we’d had to have 60 percent, everybody would have abided by the result.<\/p>\n

“If it had been a 60-40 result, it’s inconceivable to me that we would have had all of the political difficulty which followed from Members of Parliament in particular refusing to accept the result.”<\/p>\n

Mr Baker, a strident supporter of leaving Brussels, made the remarks during a question-and-answer session of the assembly at the K Club in Co Kildare, Ireland.<\/p>\n

He was responding to a question about whether he had any regrets from the Brexit campaign.<\/p>\n

Expressing his personal view on the matter, the Northern Ireland minister then cautioned against a “50 percent plus one” result in any potential Irish unification vote.<\/p>\n

He asked: “Would anyone here seriously want a 50 percent plus one United Ireland result in Northern Ireland?”<\/p>\n

After some politicians indicated “yes”, Mr Baker warned them of the “trouble” caused by the simple majority caused in the Brexit referendum.<\/p>\n

He said: “Just reflect on the trouble we had from running a 50 percent plus one referendum in the United Kingdom and ask yourself whether you really want that trouble in Northern Ireland – and I don’t.”<\/p>\n