Jacob Rees-Mogg called out for saying EU referendum was an 'election'

Ever since the EU referendum in June 2016, Britain has found itself in a perpetual state of confusion and disagreement.

Most of these issues revolve around trade deals, what the EU actually provides the UK and how many jobs will be lost as a result of leaving the union.

However, the debate of what actually constitutes a referendum is rarely brought up, which is probably a topic that Jacob Rees-Mogg didn't anticipate talking about on his LBC Radio on Wednesday.

A man named Anthony in Woking rang up to talk to the Tory MP about a YouGov poll that suggested that 28 per cent of the UK are happy to leave the EU without a deal.

Anthony started his conversation by pointing out that only 17.4 million people voted for Brexit in 2016, which is hardly representative of the entire UK population.

One camp says one figure, and another camp says another figure, so why don't we just have another referendum now we know the facts so we see what the people decide.

Everyone bangs on about 'the people' but you're only representing the 17.4 million back in 2016.

Rees-Mogg then tried to tell Anthony that 17.4 million people is still a lot of people but the caller had to tell him that there are actually 66 million people in the UK right now.

Rees-Mogg responded by saying:

It's a majority of people who voted. And all elections run on who turns out to vote.

However, this is where Rees-Mogg slipped up. By calling the referendum an 'election' he opened himself up to a whole world of ridicule which Anthony happily exploited.

It's not an election though, was it? It was an advisory referendum.

Rees-Mogg came back:

Well, a referendum is an election, obviously.

Anthony responded:

It's not. It's an opinion poll. If you look up the definition of referendum, it is an opinion poll.

Rees-Mogg then tried to emphasise his point again:

No, a referendum is a form of an election. It is not a general election, it's not an election for parliament.

Anthony then told Rees-Mogg that the referendum wasn't legally binding, to which the MP told that "it was a vote that the government said would have an effect."

The conversation was then brought to an abrupt end when Antony hung up the phone.

Oh he's gone. Anthony I'm so sorry. He's gone off in a huff

You can watch the full exchange in the video below.

HT New European

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