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Here we go again, one more vital vote to go and we will finally be ready for our political dogfight with the EU elite to tussle out a positive deal that best suits British interests going forward into a new world with Britain as a totally independent world power, capable of deciding its own destiny, for its own people.

After the June elections, we will have a genuinely elected government, armed with a fresh mandate, to lead us through a gruelling negotiations period with the European Union, which many analysts have suggested could last longer than the quoted two-year negotiation period forecast.

We must not kid ourselves, the EU political leadership has made itself quite clear, they cannot and will not allow Brexit to be an easy endeavour for us Brits. To do so would undermine the EU project further and encourage the idea to other disgruntled EU member states that breaking up with the EU isn’t such a bad idea - “look just how easy it was for the Brits” they might say, a hypothetical scenario which surely will be keeping Mrs Merkel up at night during the course of the negotiations over the next few years.

In response to this, the current government, led by Theresa May, has taken a hard-line stance, adopting a hard-Brexit party policy flattered with Churchillian style patriotic rhetoric and political jibes aimed at the Brussels elite with a clear aim of spurring the public into a right-wing frenzy leading up to the general election. “No deal is better than a bad deal,” Theresa May has said, those weighty words have now made their way officially into the Conservative party manifesto, despite prime minister May seemingly distancing herself from the ‘no deal’ comments over the past few weeks, but now the statement has returned and has been promoted to a certified position within Mrs May’s new manifesto.

It is true that, so far, the loudest supporters of Brexit have been from the right, but many on the left also voted leave. At least a third of Labour party members voted to leave and clearly millions of typical working class folk from Labour strongly=hold areas also voted in favour of leave, but since the referendum result Labour have chosen to avoid Brexit as much as possible, believing the majority of the public are sick of hearing the arguments on Brexit and are more concerned with what the next government can offer in regards to internal policies. The ‘Brexit is happening, we will deal with it later’ attitude adopted by Labour has been seen by some on the right as proof Labour are weak on Brexit and “don’t have a clue” as Boris Johnson put it in such blunt terminology during a recent Sky News TV interview. In spite of this, Labour has continued to close the gap with the hard-line Conservatives in the major polls suggesting that the lefty Labour party’s plan hasn’t been a failure at all, in fact, Labour could succeed in cutting the Tories majority government or, quite possibly, see Labour rise to power in a new coalition government of their own.

It is understandable that Labour decided to avoid Brexit in the run-up to the general election as their potential to win comes from the young vote, most of whom voted for remain. Labour members as a whole largely voted for remain while internal disputes within Labour have plagued Corbyn’s term as leader of the party; a vocal campaign which included Brexit may have encouraged these divisions of opinion to resurface, hence the conscious decision to focus on other areas.

Let me be very clear on my stance, I was 24 when I voted in the EU referendum, I voted proudly to leave and I remain proud of my choice. I am also a content Labour member and backed the case of the left for leaving the EU which became known as Lexit. However, by declaring myself a “Lexiteer” I was positioning myself on the opposite side of the argument to the Labour leadership ahead of the EU referendum. I backed the Labour Leave campaign which was working against the official party stance to remain, making me a unique member of a minority within the majority of Brits who voted Leave, an under 25 Labour leave voter. We Lexiteers may not have been the most significant force at the time but we were still an influence.

So, why did I vote to leave? Long story short, I genuinely believe it was right for me, my future, and my country to do so; that argument has been made already and the outcome decided, I will not go any further into my decision in this article. My objective is not to analyse too deeply into internal party politics or to ramble on about why remainers need to “suck it up” and get on with it, far from that. Instead, I wish to highlight the fact that, now the leave campaign has won the referendum, Brexit doesn’t have to be politically monopolised by the right, it should be a unity of political thinking from the left, right and centre - all seeking to unearth the right path for our country. I think the left has been slow to take a decisive stand on Brexit and has failed to offer a credible argument to convince young modern day socialist voters that the left support for Brexit is an important aspect of the British left's political thinking. If Labour does manage to pull off the unthinkable and actually win in June the party will be plunged, almost immediately, into a trade & economic battle for Britain against Brussels – they will need a clear vision, strategy and argument of what a socialist Britain wants to achieve in the negotiations.

The referendum is done and we are on our way out. I proudly campaigned to leave and still believe it to be the right decision, but we need people in charge who genuinely believe it to be the right choice too. Both May and Corbyn have been U-turning on their views about whether or not to stay in the EU and the single market. Both May and Corbyn campaigned to remain in last year’s referendum but with one difference. Corbyn has a long career of campaigning against EU corruption and in the 1975 referendum, asking the British public do you think the United Kingdom should stay in the European Community (the Common Market)? Mr Corbyn voted no. It is surprising that Corbyn, a self-identified socialist, chooses to take such a top-down view of social change in regards to the EU system. If his association with trade unionism should have taught him anything it should be that progressive change invariably moves from the bottom up.

Theresa May, a staunch remain campaigner during last year’s referendum, has now been thrown into the lead role, making her the (unelected) flagbearer for the hard-Brexit Tory party. The consistent hard-Brexit party, UKIP, have picked up on the fact that the prime minister of the UK is a remainer and have remodelled their party identity on the idea that someone needs to watch the top party leaders make sure they don’t “backslide on Brexit”.

The left has often been the subject of ridicule in modern political culture but the British left still has a lot that it can offer to our society with plenty of evidence to suggest that the political left will play a much bigger role in future politics. Labour’s manifesto is jam-packed with some radical leftist policies, such as the re-nationalising of the railways (something which would have been impossible to do if we had remained in the EU) and a large portion of the British public seem to love it.

When Britain voted Leave in last year’s referendum, it was not only because of immigration – yes, it was a major factor for many but for millions of Brits who voted to leave they did so because they wanted to see real change in Westminster’s priorities. They wanted to see the British government become more internally focused on our numerous major problems at home. A lack of investment outside of London, a lack of homegrown industry, a noticeable rise in British poverty, the housing crisis, tax dodging big business, and a failing NHS, are all humungous problems affecting our society, all of which have been complained about for years but with little change. The Brexit referendum offered the public a chance to force a change, that is what I and millions of others really voted for – after all, how could it be all about immigration for Brexiters when so many of my good friends who are second or third generation immigrants voted for the UK to leave the EU?

Corbyn was anti-EU for many years before he became Labour leader and was a loyal disciple of the legendary leftist politician, Tony Benn, who remained one of the harshest critics of the EU establishment his entire political career. Brexit was never a right-wing idea, in fact, some of the most passionate anti-EU campaigners over past decades have been from Britain’s political left. Like in so many cases, the right and the left actually both want the same thing, to leave the EU, to open Britain up to the rest of the world and to protect our independence, the difference only comes in how to achieve it.

Some of the criticism being brought against the current PM for her handling of the situation has been disproportionate when you take into account how childish and antagonising some elements within the EU apparatus has been but to be too aggressively anti-EU at such an early stage could be reckless, they are after all still our neighbours and we will have to make deals with the EU in order to secure what’s in both of our best interests. The problem for me, however, lies in the lack of clarity the left has made on their EU position. This will cause problems which won’t be immediately visible. Imagine if Corbyn did win the election, what is his final position on Brexit? Assuming he still believes a soft-Brexit is in Britain’s best interests, would he change his mind if a ‘bad deal’ scenario was to arise during the latter stages of the negotiations? How will his youthful remain voting fan base take any change in his parties viewpoint towards the EU? All these questions remain unanswered.

Jeremy Corbyn, the devout lifelong socialist now leader of the main opposition, has stood on the right side of history for decades, even when it required him to rebel against his own party; but one thing is worth mentioning, he stood on the wrong side of the Brexit debate. He had his reasons for doing so and people’s views can change with time, but if he had stuck by his career position, the traditional position of the left, he would have maintained his impeccable record of accurate decision making on major world policies to this day. Yes, at the time Corbyn was under massive pressure to unite his party, during a stretch when everyone predicted the remain vote would win but if the old guard of the left had taken a stronger lead in the Brexit debate, as it had always done in the past, then we would have a much more open and balanced coalition of pro-Brexit thinking going forward. All is not too late, the left can wake up, smell the coffee and begin work to bring about a Brexit which protects workers’ rights, challenges corruption, and act as a counterweight to a Brexit dominated by the right. The Lexit argument must become more relevant to ensure the British left will play its part in building an even Greater Britain, regardless of a Corbyn election victory or defeat.

We on the left will need a massive change of attitude. Many voters my age, particularly in London, believe we are making a grave mistake and should do our best do derail the Brexit train after it has already left the station, but what on earth for? Why should the youthful left leaning voters of the future cling to the oppressive EU system so frantically? Britain has never wanted to accept the Euro or join a united states of Europe with its own joint European army; let’s face it, we islanders have never been 100% on board with the mainland EU concept, so why kid ourselves? The right is looking ahead at the bigger picture and the left must do the same or risk becoming, once again, insignificant in the future.

If the Labour party does pull off a similar feat to Wenger’s unexpected red FA Cup win over the blue Chelsea favourites then I do expect a great deal of change in the parties stance on Brexit. The Labour party must decide on its position on the single market and fast, in or out? They must be prepared to play hardball as the EU will not play fair themselves - no one does in business, so why should we expect fair play from an EU establishment with its back to the wall. The political left has shown they are mature and can handle intense pressure, but for the Brexit negotiations, we will need a political pugilist who can take punches on the chin and hit back even harder. We will need someone who will not expose his belly when the EU elites roll up their magazines in frustration at British arguments for independence.

The left considers itself a platform for social resistance against establishment corruption – well, now we are looking the EU elitists bureaucrats dead in the eye, we need a stern left with a clear vision for a post-Brexit Britain. An active presence from the left in the Brexit negotiations will be instrumental in promoting co-operation and unity with our European neighbours rather than isolationism – a combination of political ideologies worked fantastically well during the referendum debate here in the UK to achieve a Brexit victory here –that same ideological unity during the negotiations would make us a much more formidable and intractable opponent.

*(Image credit: Ren/ flickr).