EU's latest 'undemocratic' move pushing Remainers toward Brexit, Kate Hoey warns
BREXITEER Kate Hoey claimed the European Union has pushed Remainers into agreeing with Brexit because of the selection process to pick the new leader of the European Commission.
Brexit: EU elections highlighted lack of democracy says Hoey
The European Council last month nominated German politician Ursula von der Leyen as the new head of the Commission, effectively bypassing the proposed candidates MEPs had put forward ahead of the European elections. Labour Brexiteer MP Kate Hoey suggested the move had demonstrated to Remainers the democratic fallacies of the bloc as she warned against plans for further integration across the bloc. Speaking to Labour Leave, Ms Hoey said: "It’s interesting that very little has been tweeted by the Remain campaign, by the People’s Vote campaign about all of this.
"What I think we are seeing now is that some people who have voted remain and were very sad that we were leaving have now also started to understand the democratic aspect of the European Union.
"Not only would it be absolutely ridiculous to have another referendum going against the first democratic referendum but that actually, democracy itself is not being served by the European Union.
"We will see more and more moves towards majority voting, a federal kind of situation where our country would have been even more and more isolated.
"We are different, we are an island nation, we see ourselves differently. We see the need for cooperation and working together but not under a system that actually takes away power away from our Parliament."
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Parliament ultimately votes for the Commissioner but they were only given one name
Ms Hoey also argued the selection of Ms von der Leyen as the new President of the Commission had highlighted the relatively small role played by the European Parliament.
MEPs were asked to confirm the former German defence minister in her new role despite criticism from across the bloc over her nomination. Ms von der Leyen was later elected with the backing of 383 of the 751 MEPs in Parliament.
The Labour Brexiteer continued: "What we’ve seen in the past few weeks with the shenanigans that have gone on in the European Union in terms of changing their Commission has made those who already knew how anti-democratic it was even more strongly that we were right to campaign to leave.
"But I think it has shown the public, a lot of whom didn’t quite understand how the system worked and actually believed the Parliament had this great democratic control – Parliament ultimately votes for the Commissioner but they were only given one name.
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"The idea that’s democratic, and the idea also that they can really change anything is showing the public again that we are leaving at the right time.
"It’s going to change even more and become even more of a centralised bureaucracy."
Boris Johnson has reiterated his commitment to delivering Brexit on October 31 on several occasions since his election on July 23.
Following phone calls with European Commission president Jean-Claude Junker – who will remain in charge until his retirement on November 1 – and Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, the Prime Minister announced he will not attend meetings with the bloc until they relent on reopening the withdrawal agreement.
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Mr Johnson has also dispatched his top EU adviser David Frost to Brussels to pressure the EU and to reconfirm his plans to leave the bloc "with or without a deal" on October 31.
A Downing Street spokeswoman said: "In his role as the Prime Minister’s Europe adviser, David Frost is visiting Brussels to have introductory meetings with key officials and to pass on the prime minister’s message in person.
“The UK is leaving the EU on 31 October whatever the circumstances. We will work energetically for a deal but the backstop must be abolished.
“If we are not able to reach an agreement then we will of course have to leave the EU without a deal.”