By Nathan Morley
NICOSIA, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- The leading campaign for a second Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom claims there is strong public support for their cause, as a smooth divorce deal with the European Union appears increasingly elusive.
Organisers of the 'People's Vote' want any Brexit deal put before the country in a public vote: "so that we can decide if a decision that will affect our lives for generations makes the country better or worse off."
"There are hundreds of issues coming to light all the time, which nobody could have necessarily known about during the referendum. This includes whether flights would be able to fly, the transportation of medical supplies -- there is even talk about stockpiling food, which is increasingly alarming," Barney Scholes, the Press Officer for the People's Vote campaign, told Xinhua.
The abbreviation 'Brexit' refers to the UK's decision in a 2016 referendum to leave the European Union, which it joined in 1973.
"The idea is, when the terms of Brexit become clear and the government has had a crack at negotiating Brexit deal, the people of this country get to vote on it and decide whether or not it's good for the country."
A recent Sky News survey found that more than three-quarters of the British public - 78 percent of those surveyed - believe that the British government is doing a bad job in negotiating a divorce from Brussels.
To make matters worse, on Sunday, the British international trade secretary warned there was a 60 percent chance that the UK would fail to reach an agreement with the European Union before it departs.
Britain is slated to officially leave the bloc on March 29, 2019.
"This is a complete mess; I think the last poll I saw was something like 1 in 10 people think the government is doing a good job of negotiating Brexit. Basically, no one is happy with the way things are going," Scholes added.
Over the last few weeks, warnings of a 'no-deal' scenario have become louder. This would mean the United Kingdom leaving the EU without any agreement on key issues like the movement of people, money, and goods. As it stands, the EU is the UK's biggest trading partner.
"It would mean overnight tearing up all existing trading arrangements, it would mean millions of citizens left in complete limbo about what their future will be - both EU citizens living in the UK and UK citizens living in the EU would have absolutely no idea what their status was or what their rights were," Scholes warned.
Over the last few weeks, high profile personalities including ex-footballer Gary Lineker, businessman Sir Richard Branson and musician Sir Elton John have been critical of the way Brexit talks have been handled.
"Our view on it is that it should be a choice between the deal that the government negotiates and remaining in the EU. The other option is this 'no deal Brexit' which would, in our view, be the worst outcome," Scholes explained.
"The momentum is clearly moving in one direction, I think we are seeing an increasing number of people coming out in favour of a 'people's vote' across the wider country. The country at the moment is completely paralyzed by this, the government is in a mess...we are increasingly confident we are going to secure this 'people's vote,' the momentum is in our direction."
People's Vote is a UK campaign group calling for a public vote on the final Brexit deal between the UK and the European Union. The group was launched in April 2018.
With Brexit a less than a year away, British expatriates and workers in Europe are also desperate for clarity over their future status. It's now two years on since the referendum, and negotiators continue to grapple over the terms of the separation.
"This has potentially quite serious implications in Northern Ireland, where there is a border between the UK and the EU. A return to a hard border there is not something that anyone wanted to see, but that might become an inevitably wit a no deal Brexit," Scholes concluded.
Last week the Governor of the Bank of England said the risk of the UK leaving the EU with no deal was "uncomfortably high".
