Former Brexit secretary Dominic Raab said we could have ‘two referendums for the price of one’

Brexiteer Dominic Raab speaks at a People's Pledge event. Photograph: YouTube. - Credit: Archant

Footage has emerged of former Brexit secretary Dominic Raab calling for two Brexit referendums.

Raab, now the foreign secretary, was speaking back in November 2011 after the formation of the People’s Pledge campaign which called for an EU referendum.

The campaign did not take a view on whether the UK should stay or leave the EU, but wanted to ensure a vote was held.

But Raab wanted to go further than what the People’s Pledge were campaigning for.

Speaking alongside Tory MPs Peter Bone, Priti Patel, and Mark Reckless, the Brexiteer was booed and hissed by an audience after he suggested we could have two referendums for the price of one.

He said the choice between “withdrawal and the status quo must be put to the British people”, before explaining he wanted to see a “promise to consult again if we’re snubbed by the EU”.

The Eurosceptic explained the Brexiteers would have a better chance of winning a mandate for their plans if they had been through the process of talks with the EU before holding another vote.

He explained: “I haven’t signed the People’s Pledge, as I said to the organisers, because I don’t believe in and in-out referendum but I am supporting two referenda for the price of one.

“I think Britain has a huge opportunity to come up with a positive and pro-active blueprint for our relationship with Europe and I’d like to take that to the country.”