British trade unions are finally backing a new Brexit referendum – now it's up to Jeremy Corbyn to deliver it

I've never been a europhile, but I felt absolute joy on hearing that Unison had backed a Final Say

I never thought I’d become such a vocal campaigner for a final say. I’m no europhile. Where I’m from, in Newcastle, the politics of the European Union (often like our own Parliament) felt far away from the day-to-day struggles of my family and friends.

And for a long time, we really have struggled. It is an understatement to say that Tory-led austerity has been hardest felt in the North East. Cuts to local services, a lack of investment in infrastructure and the constant undermining of hard-won rights for working people, exacerbate an already dire situation.

It’s one of the reasons for my involvement in the trade union movement. Not only has it changed my life, I truly believe that by working together, people can achieve more than on our own.

So my fight for a people’s vote is motivated very simply, by the untold damage that Brexit will do to my already devastated community.

I can only describe my feelings, on hearing the announcement from Unison – my trade union – that we backed a public vote on Brexit, as absolute joy.

My involvement in Unison is relatively new. I was motivated to join the biggest union in the UK by its outstanding regional presence, and by the work it has done defending my mam as a part-time teaching assistant who has suffered under the biting cuts of Tory austerity.

Knowing that a Tory Brexit will harm the very communities our movement is meant to defend, I have been disappointed by many trade unions’ ambivalence – or worse, facilitation – of this government’s Brexit deal.

The government’s own reluctantly released assessment figures show that any deal will hit be another generation’s worth of austerity. This puts a question mark over the business and investment that is only here because of single market membership, as well as increasing the burden on already struggling working families, to whom the Trussell Trust had to give out 27,000 food emergency packages in my area of Newcastle alone last year.

It’s been difficult for an ever-decreasing number of trade unionists to square the circle of Leave communities being the places which will be hardest hit by Brexit. Thankfully, Unison has joined a growing list, including the GMB, TSSA, Community, Prospect and the Royal College of Midwives, which backs a public vote.

In my Leave-voting community, members of my own family felt enfranchised by the Vote Leave campaign, with it’s direct promises of more investment and control over their lives. It is not only understandable, but entirely legitimate that people voted Leave on the promise of a better future.

We now know that the reality is quite the opposite.

My community were given false hope and lied too. They did not vote to be made poorer and see their already precarious working rights be revoked and degraded by a Tory government. But whether you voted to Remain or Leave, our 7-million-strong trade union movement needs to be standing up, not standing by for our members.

Jeremy Corbyn is currently the most powerful opposition leader in recent history. Trade unions, Labour MPs, members and voters are all uniting around a public vote – and he has a chance to deliver it.

This is not the Brexit that people voted for in good faith, and it’s only fair and reasonable to put it back to the people. In every trade union in the country, once a deal is negotiated, it is put back to its members for confirmation. It is right to do the same thing on the most important issue of a generation.

Dave Prentis – general secretary of Unison – said it best: “Whatever deal emerges in the coming days should be put to the country”. He is entirely right, and I’ve never been more proud to be a part of Unison.