British Party Wants Referendum on EU Withdrawal

The UK Independence Party (ukip) launched a nationwide campaign last Monday (September 12) to take a question to British citizens: Should the United Kingdom withdraw from the European Union?

The party hopes to gather 2 million signatures in order to petition for a referendum on the UK’s EU membership.

Though Britain has no written constitution or anything codified regarding the rules for holding referenda, the ukip feels that 2 million signatures should be enough to get the leadership on Downing Street to take note of the British populace’s growing anti-EU sentiment.

David Lott, campaign organizer for the party, said that “such a significant amount of votes would be enough to expose their arguments and put pressure on UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, even if a referendum will probably not be the end result” (EUobserver.com, September 14).

That EUobserver.com report quoted Lott: “With this we want to raise the temperature of the debate.”

The article broached the question of where such a referendum would leave Britain, should Britons vote to leave the EU: “[I]t is unclear how the withdrawal would actually come about. Under the current EU treaties, there are no rules on how and if a country can leave the union.”

But as this magazine—and its predecessor (the Plain Truth under Herbert W. Armstrong)—has been insisting for years, Britain will ultimately leave this union of European nations. The indications in Bible prophecy of this outcome are very strong, and can be studied in our free booklet The United States and Britain in Prophecy.

The ukip, gaining popularity in Britain—as reflected in last year’s European Parliament election results—could have a great deal to do with getting the UK to withdraw from the EU. It could help breed enough discontent with the EU among British voters that the country’s leaders are forced to bow to the will of their people.