Redwood insists people must vote on any EU return bid

Lord Redwood has set out a plain case that the British people remain sovereign and that any suggestion of rejoining the European Union must go back to them for a vote. Writing on ConservativeHome, the former Cabinet minister and distinguished fellow of All Souls College Oxford argued that power sits with the public, not with politicians who fancy handing it away again.

He traced the long British settlement from Magna Carta through the Glorious Revolution and universal suffrage. Ultimate authority rests with the people. Governments govern only with their consent and must obey the law made by Parliament and independent judges. When laws or taxes turn sour, voters can remove a government at the next election. That is the deal.

Parliament holds power only for a limited time. Giving those powers away for long periods to foreign jurisdictions, with no reliable way to claw them back or force good use, breaks the constitutional bargain. Redwood said most people therefore judged it right that entry into the old European Community should have faced a public vote, and that the decision to leave required one.

Membership itself weakened regular accountability. The European Parliament could not be changed by Britain alone and offered little grip on the Commission. British wishes were often ignored, bargained away or outvoted. That is why the principle of popular consent matters so sharply now.

Any fresh push to reverse Brexit and return powers to Brussels would rupture that settlement again. Redwood’s message is direct: politicians do not own the people’s sovereignty. If they want to surrender it once more, they must ask the country first and accept the answer. The public decided to leave. Only the public can decide otherwise.