I managed to catch up with Dominic Grieve KC PC briefly at the EU Citizens gathering in London this week regarding his debate a few weeks ago at Durham Union Society. This is Durham’s largest and oldest student society that has been inspiring debate since 1842.
The subject of the debate was “This house would rejoin the European Union”. The motion, proposed by Grieve himself, was carried by a substantial majority. He is naturally very motivated by this topic as the vice-president of the European Movement. Grieve, was also famously stripped of the whip by Boris Johnson in 2019 for refusing to back a no-deal Brexit. He also served as attorney general from 2010 to 2014. The MP for Beaconsfield from 1997 to 2019 was also chair of Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee for four years.
As co-founder of North East for Europe I talked with him about just how important this debate was for an area so associated with vote leave and thanked him for doing this. County Durham, as a whole, voted to leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum by 57.5%. Grieve discussed how Ben Habib was also present to fiercely defend the vote leave side of the debate. Habib is a former MEP for the Brexit Party and was co-deputy leader of Reform UK until July 2024 when he was replaced by Richard Tice.
The importance of debate
As Grieve says, more important than the result was the fact that the issue was being debated. This is especially during a time when our politicians should be doing the same but are instead burying their heads in the sand as our economy and well-being flat lines.
I also mentioned how people perceive being a branch of European Movement is a hard sell within the North East because the area is seen as the ‘Brexit capital’. We know that this is not strictly true and we actually get a lot of support when we do our local events. As a group, we also know from talking to local people that there are many who have changed their mind now they have seen what Brexit means in reality. This encouraging event at Durham Union Society has also given us more impetus to carry on our campaign up here.
EU Citizens
It is also due to this perception about the North East being the ‘Brexit capital’ that it was very important to us that we came to represent the region at this EU Citizens gathering. This event was aimed at the EU citizens’ community and civil society organisations in the UK, bringing together embassies, politicians and academies to build connections and share best practice We had earlier listened to Grieve speaking here with his other hat on as President of the Franco-British society. It was also refreshing to hear from MPs who actually weren’t afraid of the Brexit elephant in the room including Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy and Lib Dem MP Richard Foord. Mike Galsworthy, Chair of European Movement was also in attendance.
If you missed Dominic Grieve at the events mentioned here, he will also be appearing at European Movement’s AGM on Saturday where all members are entitled to register to watch online.
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