Final Say: 5 reasons why we need a second referendum

Even Theresa May admits that Brexit is a 'crisis' now but she still hasn't come up with a clear plan to stop a no-deal Brexit.

With Parliament unable to decide on anything they want, calls for a second referendum are growing stronger by the day and a petition calling for Theresa May to cancel Brexit by revoking Article 50 has already passed 2.5 million signatures.

Last year, The Independent launched a petition called Final Say (which you can still sign up to here) calling for the British people to have a final say on the government's Brexit deal.

More than 1 million people have signed it so far and remainers and Brexiteers alike will march in London on Saturday to protest their right to have a Final Say on the Brexit process.

A second referendum has the backing of senior members of parliament including ex-cabinet minister Dominic Grieve, as well as The Independent's Group spokesperson Chuka Umunna, former prime minister Tony Blair and the leaders of the SNP, Lib Dems, Plaid Cymru and Greens.

Celebrities, such as Delia Smith, Sir Patrick Stewart and Gary Lineker have also thrown their support behind a final deal on Brexit.

The reason for The Independent's campaign is threefold: the people on both sides of the debate are losing faith in the current process, the people should have a chance to finish what they started, and the people on both sides are more aware than ever of the misinformation that was rife in the original 2016 campaign.

Here are five more reasons why a second referendum needs to happen:

1. Parliament has twice rejected Theresa May's Brexit deal but can't decide on what it wants

MPs have said no to May's deal.

They've rejected no deal.

They've rejected Labour's deal.

If MPs don't know what they want, maybe they should give the choice back to voters to decide.

2. It's 'morally justified'

Former prime minister John Major told Andrew Marr:

A second vote has democratic downsides, it has difficulties – but is it morally justified? I think it is.

If you look back at the leave campaign, a great many of the promises they made were fantasy promises.

It’s painfully obvious they are not going to be met.

Many of the things they said were absolutely pie in the sky.

3. Because the Leave campaign was riddled with inaccuracies

A number of claims made by Vote Leave have been proven by The Independent to be ‘demonstrably false.’

These include:

Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan arguing Brexit wouldn’t ‘threaten our place in the single market’

Throughout Brexit negotiations Theresa May has somewhat consistently committed to taking the UK out of the single market.

Boris Johnson claiming that following Brexit, the UK will have ‘roughly £350m [more] per week’

The UK statistics authority have called this ‘a clear misuse of official statistics and in recent months we've seen more and more businesses express an unease about their future in the UK following Brexit.

Vote Leave also saying that ‘Turkey is joining the EU’

Though Turkey has been an EU candidate since 1999, there are no such plans of this happening any time soon.

4. The government have already said a referendum on the final deal is 'possible'

According to Politics at Home, foreign minister Alan Duncan said it would ‘just be possible to ask the people’ for their opinion on the agreement, though he rejected the possibility of another Brexit referendum.

5. Politicians are so divided, it might be better to give British people the Final Say

Former education secretary and remain supporter Justine Greening believes other senior Tory MPs should support the idea of a second referendum to end the parliamentary equilibrium.

Writing for the Times, she said:

[The ] only solution is to take the final Brexit decision out of the hands of deadlocked politicians.

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