1154/55: Following the death of Abbot Martin de Bec, 'all the congregation met to choose a man among them who should be their father and shepherd, and guardian lest by reason of their delay some stranger should make his way in by payment of bribes'. They chose William de Waterville. All formalities and procedures were followed and on this first Sunday of Lent, 'with a great procession he was welcomed into his own home of Burch (the name of Peterborough at that time)'. (Mellows, W.T.,The Peterborough Chronicle of Hugh Candidus, Peterborough Museum Society, 1980)
Taken from The Peterborough Book of Days by Brian Jones, The History Press,2014.
In 2019 a recall petition was launched in the Peterborough constituency to remove the Labour Member of Parliament, Fiona Onasanya. This was the first to successfully remove an MP.
The petition was triggered in March 2019 after Fiona Onasanya failed to get permission to appeal against her conviction for perverting the course of justice and its resulting 3 month prison sentence. She, together with her brother Festus, had misled the police over a speeding offence in 2017 and was convicted in December 2018.
She was expelled from the Labour Party following her conviction but refused to resign from parliament. The recall petition ran between 19th March and 1st May 2019 and was signed by 19 261 people out of the 69 673 eligible electors, greatly exceeding the 10% required to vacate the seat.
A by-election was run on 6th June 2019 and was won by Lisa Forbes of the Labour Party, the Brexit Party’s Mike Green came in second place.
On 6 August 2019 Fiona Onasanya was struck off as a solicitor by the Solicitors' Disciplinary Tribunal which found she had failed to "uphold the rule of law and proper administration of justice" and "acted dishonestly". (BBC News)
The United Kingdom European Union (EU)membership referendum took place on 23 June 2016 in the United Kingdom (UK) and Gibraltar to ask the electorate if the country should remain a member of the European Union (EU) or leave it. It was called by the Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron as a result of an electoral promise.
Nationally the referendum resulted in 51.9% of votes being in favour of leaving the EU (17,410,742 votes) and 48.1% of votes in favour of remaining in the EU (16,141,241).
Locally the referendum resulted in 60.89% (53 216 ) of votes being to leave against 39.11% (34 176) of votes to remain in the EU.
Although not legally binding the government had promised to implement the result of the referendum.
On 29 March 2017, the Government of the United Kingdom under Prime Minister Theresa May invoked Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, meaning that the UK was due to leave the EU before 11PM on 29 March 2019, when the two-year period for Brexit (Britain's exit) negotiations expired. This did not happen as no deal was reached on the 'divorce' agreement. and an extension was agreed.
The final deadline for leaving the EU was 31 January 2020.
The Brexit Party, formed to ensure Britain's departure from the EU came second in the 2019 Peterborough by-election.
References:
Multiple news sources including BBC News.
Image:
Ballot paper
Britain first began talks to join the European Economic Community (EEC) in July 1961. However the French President Charles De Gaulle vetoed the United Kingdom's (UK) first two applications to join in 1963 and 1967. After De Gaulle left the presidency in 1969 the UK applied again, and this time was successful.
The Treaty of Accession was signed in January 1972 by the Conservative Prime Minister Edward Heath. The United Kingdom's membership of the European Community (EC) came into effect on 1 January 1973, together with Denmark and Ireland.
Harold Wilson, the Leader of the Labour Party had promised in the October 1974 General Election campaign to renegotiate Britain's terms of membership of the European Communities (EC) and then hold a referendum on whether to remain in the EC on the new terms. The Labour Party won the election and in 1975, the United Kingdom held its first ever national referendum on whether the UK should remain in the European Community. All of the major political parties and the mainstream press supported continuing membership of the EC.
On 5 June 1975, the electorate were asked to vote yes or no on the question: "Do you think the UK should stay in the European Community (Common Market)?"
With a turnout of just under 65%, the outcome of the vote was 67.2% in favour of staying in, and the United Kingdom remained a member of the EC.
Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson called a General Election, to be run on 12th December 2019, after failing to get parliament to approve a revised withdrawal agreement from the European Union by the end of October 2019. Mr Johnson needed to obtain an overall majority in the election in order to accomplish his main goal of taking the United Kingdom out of the European Union by the end of January 2020.
The election resulted in a Conservative win with a landslide majority of 80 seats (365 seats in total), their largest majority since 1987, with the party making a net gain of 48 seats. Many of these seats were gained in the north of the country, in what was considered Labour’s heartland. Labour won 202 seats, the Scottish National Party 48 and the Liberal Democrats 11 with their leader Jo Swinson losing her seat.
In Peterborough:
Labour’s Lisa Forbes, who had won a contentious by- election in June 2019 narrowly beating Mike Green of the Brexit Party, lost to Paul Bristow of the Conservative Party, with the Brexit Party coming fourth.
Full results:
Paul Bristow (Conservative) - 22,334
Lisa Forbes (Labour) - 19,754
Beki Sellick (Liberal Democrat) - 2,334
Mike Greene (Brexit Party) - 2,127
Joseph Wells (Green) – 728
Luke Ferguson (Independent) - 260
Tom Rogers (Christian Peoples Alliance) - 151
The Very Raving Mr P (The Official Monster Raving Loony Party) - 113
Turnout – 47 899 (66.01%) Majority – 2 580
Reference:
https://www.peterborough.gov.uk/council/elections/election-details
Following the successful Recall Petition against Fiona Onasanya after her conviction for perverting the course of justice a by-election was run on 6 June 2019. Mike Green of the Brexit Party was the favourite to win but the election was narrowly won by Labour’s Lisa Forbes with Mike Green in second place.
Results:
Labour Party - Lisa Forbes, Votes:10,484 /30.91%
Brexit Party - Mike Greene, Votes 9,801/28.89 %
Conservative Party - Paul Bristow, Votes 7,243/21.35%
Liberal Democrats - Beki Sellick, Votes 4,159 /12.26 %
Green Party - Joseph Wells, Votes 1,035/ 3.05%
Ten other candidates stood.
At 23.00 hours on the 31st of January 2020 Britain officially left the European Union (EU) after 47 years of membership. Brexit (Britain's exit) follows the referendum on membership of the EU held on 23 June 2016 in which Peterborough voted 60.89% to leave and 39.11% to remain, nationally the vote was 51.9% leave and 48.1% remain.
In March 2017 the government gave formal notice to quit the EU, under Article 50 of the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty, a legal process setting it on a two-year path to departure, which made March 29, 2019, the formal leaving date. Departure was delayed when parliament failed to pass Prime Minister Mrs May's withdrawal deal. and the EU agreed to push the date back to April 12. Parliament again failed to pass the deal and Mrs May again had to seek an extension, this time the EU insisted on a longer delay and set 31 October as the date,
Boris Johnson became Prime Minister in July 2019 and vowed to take Britain out of the union by the deadline, with or without a deal, but parliament, including rebels in his own party, blocked a no-deal withdrawal forcing Mr Johnson to seek a further extension, something he had said he would rather be "dead in a ditch" than do. European leaders agreed to extend the deadline by three months, to 31 January 2020. Mr Johnson then persuaded parliament to agree to an early general election, occurring in December 2019, in this the Conservative Party won a majority of 80 seats, one of which was Peterborough, allowing Brexit to be passed.
Following this Britain has entered a transition period to negotiate terms of exit, ending on 31 December 2020.
References:
Multiple sources including BBC News
Image: iStock
The United Kingdom European Union (EU)membership referendum took place o…
Britain first began talks to join the European Economic Community (EEC)…
Harold Wilson, the Leader of the Labour Party had promised in the Octobe…