Second Brexit vote called for by former top US official Richard Haass

Former US special envoy to Northern Ireland Richard Haass believes that the UK should hold another referendum on Brexit. 

Haass, a US diplomat and president of the Council on Foreign Relations, succeeded Senator George Mitchell as the US Special Envoy for Northern Ireland in 2003, and returned again to Northern Ireland in 2013 to lead cross-party talks on still-simmering issues such as flags, parades, and coping with the past. 

In a recent interview with The Irish News, he revealed his support for a second public referendum on whether the UK should depart from the European Union. 

“This is not a policy but the country’s future and given how consequential it is and how lasting its impact will be, I think you need to give the people another chance to weigh in – if they reaffirm it, so be it," he said. 

He unequivocally stated that breaking from the EU  “can’t be good for Northern Ireland,” suggesting that it would lead to trouble with the border between Ireland and Nothern Ireland. 

“Unionists, who presumably would most oppose Northern Ireland leaving the UK and joining Ireland, favored Brexit – that to me is an obvious example of how people were not thinking about the first and second order consequences of what they were voting for,” he said, suggesting that the events of Brexit are bringing the possibility of a United Ireland closer than before. 

What do you think? Should there be a second Brexit vote? Share your thoughts in the comment section.