World

U.K. Lawmakers to Debate Second EU Membership Referendum

Monday, September 5, 2016 4:59 am | < 1 Minute Read
LONDON (AP) —
FILE -In this June 22, 2016 file photo, a European Union flag, right, and a Union are displayed outside Europe House, the European Parliament's British offices in London. Widespread economic angst. Intense opposition to immigration policy. The rise of populist and nationalist sentiments, particularly among less-educated and older white voters. The politics that led voters in Britain to cast ballots in favor of leaving the European Union sound awfully familiar to those that led Donald Trump to the Republican presidential nomination. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File)
A European Union flag (R) and a Union Jack are displayed outside Europe House, the European Parliament’s British offices in London. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File)

British lawmakers will debate a public petition on whether to hold a second referendum on the country’s membership in the European Union.

The debate follows a petition that urged the government to hold another vote, since turnout was below 75 percent and fewer than 60 percent of voters backed the decision to leave the bloc.

The government has already ruled out a second referendum, but lawmakers are obliged to debate any petition that receives 100,000 signatures and this one garnered 4.1 million.

The minister in charge for the British exit, or Brexit, said before the debate Monday that “Brexit isn’t about making the best of a bad job. It is about seizing the huge and exciting opportunities that will flow from a new place for Britain in the world.”

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