Today, the Green Party has announced its policy to offer a referendum on the final Brexit deal; what the Party is calling a Ratification Referendum.

This is significant for the election campaign here in Bristol West. The constituency voted to Remain in the EU by 79% to 21% (based on this breakdown by Council wards). Consequently, Molly Scott Cato, Green MEP & Green Parliamentary candidate for Bristol West, is calling for Westminster to give control back to the people.

When Theresa May triggered Article 50, I started a petition on the Government website that calls for exactly this. These usually run for 6 months, so I was hoping to get a campaign running. Then Theresa May called an election, and now all petitions close when Parliament dissolves on 3rd May.

It’s around the 27k mark, and has been waiting 23 days for a Government response. Let’s face it, it’s not going to get one now. But you can still sign it to add numbers to the support (Put the final Brexit deal to a referendum with revoking Article 50 as an option).

So the Green offer is pretty solid. We believe in democracy, which is why we want a referendum on the final Brexit deal. It is absurd that every Parliament in the EU will get a vote on this deal, as well as the EU itself, as well as Scotland potentially having an Independence Referendum that will, in part, be a de facto vote on the Brexit deal.

Not only that, but we know from Theresa May’s recent dinner with Juncker that the current Government have literally no grasp of the basic process of negotiating this deal, leading many to conclude that it is Theresa May’s intention to deliberate wreck the negotiations and walk away without a deal.

Terrifying.

By contrast, current Bristol West MP Thangam Debbonaire has ruled out supporting a referendum on the Brexit deal. Echoing Theresa May’s claim that the people have already spoken, Thangam told me that only MPs can be trusted with the vote, as a referendum might have the same result as the last referendum.

This demonstrates the most cynical contempt for the electorate. Greens will admit to opposing Brexit, and believing that there is no Brexit deal as good or better than remaining in the EU. But we also believe in democracy, and in giving power to the people. If there is a referendum on the Brexit deal, and the result is “take the deal”, we would get upset about the result but ultimately accept it.

Leave supporters should want this referendum as well as Remainers; if our future outside the EU is bright, then Leave will win the referendum, and the issue will be definitively settled because everyone will have voted on the Brexit deal itself.

I don’t agree with the idea that referendums are bad for democracy. If anything, I think we need more referendums, with enough democratic support built in to allow the electorate of the day to properly consider the issues at hand.

In the meantime, Bristol West voters have a choice in June between two very different attitudes to Brexit:

Thangam Debbonaire, the Labour whip whose job it would be to force Brexit through the Commons under a Labour Government, and who doesn’t trust the people to vote the right way. Or Molly Scott Cato, the respected Green MEP who wants the people to have a final say on the Brexit deal.

That’s why a vote for Molly is a vote for a final say.