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Caroline Lucas with anti-Brexit protesters
‘We need to find a way forward which that allows the British people to decide which course they want to take.’ Caroline Lucas with anti-Brexit protesters. Photograph: Isabel Infantes/AFP/Getty Images
‘We need to find a way forward which that allows the British people to decide which course they want to take.’ Caroline Lucas with anti-Brexit protesters. Photograph: Isabel Infantes/AFP/Getty Images

I’m calling for a cabinet of women to stop a disastrous no-deal Brexit

This article is more than 4 years old
Caroline Lucas
Female cooperation was vital to the Paris climate agreement and bringing peace to Northern Ireland. We can stop no deal

It is hard to remember a moment in my lifetime when Britain faced a greater crisis. A coup led by a small group of rightwing libertarians is all but complete, as the Vote Leave team has been reassembled and taken control of 10 Downing Street. They are set upon implementing the most extreme no-deal version of Brexit – and, most terrifyingly, we are running out of time to stop them.

At times of national crises political leaders need to bring a country together. But that is not happening. The government is hellbent on creating more divisions, scapegoating our friends and neighbours, and ignoring the inequality and democratic deficit that fuelled the Brexit vote.

It is not only a crash-out Brexit that threatens our future. There’s the climate emergency too, and an unscrupulous leader would have no qualms about manipulating it to justify the sweeping aside of democratic guarantees and people losing their rights. We have to avoid this danger.

Mending our broken democracy should underpin the response to both the Brexit and climate crises – with elected politicians setting aside our political differences in the national interest. When the 16-year-old Greta Thunberg visited Britain earlier this year I convened cross-party talks with her on how to end our climate emergency. The same degree of cooperation is needed to confront what’s happening in the name of Brexit.

We need an “emergency cabinet” – not to fight a Brexit war but to work for reconciliation. And I believe this should be a cabinet of women.

Why women? Because I believe women have shown they can bring a different perspective to crises, are able to reach out to those they disagree with and cooperate to find solutions. It was two women, Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan, who began the Peace People movement during the worst of the Troubles in Northern Ireland; it was two women, Christiana Figueres and Ségolène Royal, who were key to the signing of the Paris climate agreement; intractable problems have found the beginning of resolution thanks to the leadership of women.

So I have reached out to 10 women colleagues from across the political spectrum at Westminster and Holyrood – Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, Labour, the SNP, Plaid Cymru, the Independent Group for Change and independent – asking that we join together to stop the dangerous pursuit of a crash-out Brexit.

This is not an attempt to replace one coup with another. A small group of us should not be deciding on Britain’s future and that is not what lies behind my initiative. But we need to find a way forward that allows the British people to decide which course they want to take.

To begin with that means denying Boris Johnson the reins of power through a no-confidence vote and establishing a national unity government. Political tribalism would likely scupper any moves that are just about putting Jeremy Corbyn in charge. So far the Labour leadership’s reaction has been to suggest they would not work in coalition with other parties, and politicians from some other parties have made clear that they would not serve under his leadership. A government of national unity must do exactly that – unite parties. And I believe that a cross-party cabinet of women has the potential to do exactly that.

We then need to press the pause button in order to organise a confirmatory vote that offers people the choice of the status quo or pressing ahead with the latest government plan – whether that is a revised withdrawal agreement or, as seems more likely, a proposal to leave with no deal.

It also means a commitment that, as politicians, we accept the outcome of that fair, transparent and informed vote, even if it delivers a result we do not agree with.

I believe we can make this happen. I’m asking my colleagues to meet with me in the coming days so together we can transform the conversation about Brexit. So together we can find a positive way forward, revitalise our democracy, and stand up to this government’s reckless gamble with Britain’s future.

This article was sent as a letter by Caroline Lucas to Heidi Allen MP, Kirsty Blackman MP, Yvette Cooper MP, Justine Greening MP, Sylvia Hermon MP, Liz Saville Roberts MP, Anna Soubry MP, Nicola Sturgeon MSP, Jo Swinson MP and Emily Thornberry MP

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