The case for another vote on Brexit is gaining strength

A YEAR AGO the case for a second vote on EU membership looked like the definition of a lost cause. At the general election in 2017 both major parties promised to “deliver Brexit”. The only party that wanted to hold another referendum, the Liberal Democrats, got 8% of the vote. Support for a so-called People’s Vote on the terms of Britain’s exit from the EU was confined to a motley group of die-hards, no-hopers and eccentrics who spent more time feuding over technicalities (should 16-year-olds be given a say this time round?) than they did making their case to the people.

Today there is a significant chance that Britain will end up having a vote on whether to accept the Brexit deal that Theresa May presented to the cabinet on November 14th. Over the past few months the no-hopers have racked up a succession of victories. In October the People’s Vote campaign organised a march of 670,000 people in London. On November 9th Jo Johnson, a transport minister and brother of Boris, resigned from the government and argued that, given Britain now faced a choice between “vassalage” and “chaos”—that is, remaining tied to the EU without a say on its rules or leaving without a deal—the only reasonable choice was another vote. On November 12th Gordon Brown became the third former prime minister to call for another vote. And Mrs May herself admitted this week that Britain faced a three-way choice: her deal, no deal, “or no Brexit at all.”