Stroud’s Green MEP Molly Scott Cato talks Brexit fallout, the state of democracy and the future of her party

Brexit has left financial markets jittery, the country’s two main political parties in turmoil and the future of the UK in deep and uncertain waters.

The historic decision was met with differing amounts delight and despair up and down the UK – with some reflecting on the decision as a bright new turning point in the county’s history and others seeing it as a deceptive and dangerous retreat from the word.

But someone who has been affected more than others is Stroud’s resident Green Member of European Parliament, Molly Scott Cato.

Because for her, Brexit means she will effectively lose the job she was elected to do just two years ago.

The SNJ caught up with the Green politician, academic and economist in Stroud on her return from Brussels to get her view on the state of our democracy, the fallout from Brexit and what the future holds for her party.

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“What has shocked me most this last week is just how easy it’s been to push what I thought was a very stable democracy into complete freefall and political chaos,” she says.

“Within a few days of Brexit the UK was in the process of a full-scale implosion. Our country has effectively been left without government or opposition and a politics bereft of clear direction.

“Brexit has been a catastrophe on many levels. But none more so than because it has divided communities. It has allowed the rise of the far right and poured petrol on what was a small flame on xenophobia.

“That is a disaster that will take a much longer time to sort out than our financial markets.

“In terms of our economic future we are going to see loss of jobs, loss of opportunities. It’s a really big threat to the way our economy and our society works. Now the situation we’ve been left with is one of panic and a complete lack of leadership.

“We had a Prime Minister who was inept enough to lose the referendum against members of his own party – many of whom didn’t even want to win themselves.

“Within a week we’ve seen the deceptions of the Leave side exposed. There was absolutely no plan for how we were going to deal with a Brexit. We didn’t even have a plan scribbled on the back of a fag packet. Now we’re having to deal with the consequences.”

The irony of all this "chaos", she says, is that what the UK ends up with could be precisely what Brexit-backers voted against.

“This is the really ironic thing about the vote. The leave side said it was about ‘taking back control’. But who is taking back control? All that’s happened is we’ve given much more power to the Conservative party domestically to decide who our next Prime Minister is going to be.

“And in terms of negotiations at the Brussels end, if we end up with the Norway option, we’ll have actually put ourselves in the situation where unelected bureaucrats are deciding our future rather than people who have actually been elected. That’s the tragedy of it.”

Putting the result aside, Ms Cato said the Greens and other progressives in Europe have to now move forward to revitalise democracy and fight against the rise of the far right.

To do this though, she says, people and politicians must first understand how the UK got to this point in the first place.

“We have to understand that the issues that brought us here have been brewing for a very long time,” she said.

“Throughout the Brexit campaign I think we saw a cynical manipulation of desperate working people by the elite in this country. Tory Brexiteers managed to persuade a majority of the British people to support them against their own interests.

“They energised people’s disgruntlement with globalisation and exhaustion with austerity and channelled it into a destructive but powerful movement for change.

“I also think it comes down to a lack of information over many years about what the EU actually is and does. This lack of information was partnered by no attempt for people to restrain from completely distorting the truth.

“The amount of times that I was told that the whole EU was not elected was amazing. People on the doorsteps wouldn’t believe me when I told them I was democratically elected.

“But the biggest frustration we feel in Brussels is that David Cameron never needed to call this referendum in the first place. It was deeply irresponsible.

“Then we had the Tories barely working at all and Labour standing back and watching the Conservatives pull themselves apart. Because of this, too many voters believed the people who had their best interests at heart were Boris Johnson and Michael Gove – two men who have since been exposed for the deceitful career politicians they are.

“The problem is that when politicians like that behave so poorly it undermines people’s faith in any kind of progressive democratic politics.”

For her then, Brexit represents a “cry of pain, anger and protest” from the electorate against fracturing political allegiances, against misinformation, against mistrust of politicians, and against misrepresentation of globalisation.

But it also represents a chance and an opportunity for a radical rethink of politics in the UK.

“In some ways this is a chance for us to revitalise of democracy,” she says. “There are now huge opportunities for us to change how our country works.

“First of all there is a real necessity to rebuild communities that have been damaged by post-Brexit racism. But there is also a real need to rebuilt trust and optimism in democracy.”

The first and foremost means of fixing this democratic deficit, she says, is electoral reform.

“First past the post is a political cartel designed to preserve the status quo. What we’ve seen in Brexit is voters rejecting the two-party establishment that it has helped create,” she said.

“In this referendum we saw a huge number of people use their vote as a protest. This is because a lot of people have voted their whole lives and never seen it make a difference.

“Then they get the chance in this referendum to really change things – so they voted against the establishment, they voted for radical change. The protest won.

“So this is a chance to blow apart that system and make sure every vote counts. The Greens need to work towards changing outmoded electoral system to one that is truly representative.”

However, as well as pushing for electoral reform, Ms Cato also sees a far more important role for the Greens in a post-Brexit UK.

“Firstly, and most importantly, we and progressive parties across Europe have to do right now is stand up and confront fascism and racism.

“We must not allow the far right to use the vote in the referendum as a domestic mandate. The Greens must stand with communities to fight the rise in xenophobia and racism that has appeared in our country. Stronger communities can help heal the divisions caused by the referendum campaign.

“Secondly I think what we need to do is make a very strong case for revitalising democracy in this country. This means working in communities to engage people in thinking about what their political future might be.

“In parallel with this at home, we must continue to work with progressive forces across our continent to maintain stability, democracy and peace across Europe.”

On a personal level, the Green MEP is determined to help steady the ship and do what she can in the transition out of the EU.

Despite being narrowly voted out her job by the electorate, she has maintained that she will work alongside her Green colleagues in Brussels to make sure the values the party cares for most are protected and the UK emerges with the best deal possible.

“We have to look forward and start making proper preparations to leave the EU. Already though our power to influence these changes inside its institutions has been significantly weakened,” she said.

“Because we voted to leave, my legislative power of tax avoidance and other things has really been diminished.

“But on the hand I’ve got an important role in seeing as much as I can in these negotiations and making sure they don’t sell out all the things we value about Europe, whether that’s environmental protections, human and worker’s rights.

“I think there is still an important role for me to play in the European Parliament. It will be years until I’m actually out of a job. But in that time I’ll continue to protect the interests and get the best for the people of the South West.

“I’m very glad I worked and campaigned as hard as I did during the referendum campaign. But I’m so tired now. I couldn’t have done any more. All the tragedies aside, I know I poured my heart into it. But I lost.”

What is next for Stroud’s resident MEP then? While she desperately wants to represent the Greens in politics, she said the first past the post electoral system discouraged her from standing as an MP again.

Like the country, she concludes, the future for her in this momentous time of change remains unclear.

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Molly Scott Cato is the current Member of the European Parliament for the South West England.

She was elected in May 2014, and is the first Green Party MEP to represent the region.

From 2012 until her election as MEP, she was Professor of Strategy and Sustainability at the University of Roehampton.

Scott Cato speaks for the Green Party on finance issues and is well known in the field of co-operative studies.

She has published widely on green economics, localism and anti-capitalism, and has contributed to works on the risks of nuclear power, the use of which she strongly opposes.