Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows round-up: Christopher Wylie – ‘I want a democratic mandate for Brexit’

The former director of research at Cambridge Analytica, the data-mining firm notoriously suspended by Facebook for harvesting details of up to 87 million Facebook accounts without their consent, has told Andrew Marr that the 2016 referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU should be re-contested. Wylie’s suggestion comes after it was highlighted that Vote Leave – the official Leave campaign – had employed the services of AggregateIQ (AIQ), a company which Wylie claims to have founded in order to support Cambridge Analytica. AIQ was also suspended from Facebook on Saturday for improperly receiving users’ data, charges which AIQ denies. Wylie argued that Vote Leave’s connections to alleged misconduct by AIQ meant that it was not guaranteed that the result in 2016 was made fairly and legally:

AM: If the [Digital, Culture Media and Sport] select committee says ‘Chris Wylie is right… these connections are proved’, what follows from that? Are you really suggesting the referendum should be re-run somehow? We should forget 2016 and do it all over again?

CW: …I’m saying this as somebody who supported Leave. I’m saying this as a eurosceptic myself, but this is a fundamental change to the constitutional settlement of Britain, the foundational law of Britain. And what I’m saying is that if we can’t go back from Brexit, if this is a one-time decision, we need absolute clarity that the decision made by the British people was made fairly, and compliant with the law. And so, if that means that we have to go back to the British people and ask for a clarification, I think that British people should have a say and make sure that what we’re doing is with the consent of the people. That’s what I’m saying. I want a democratic mandate for Brexit.

Angela Rayner – ‘I’ve been a little frustrated’ over action on anti-Semitism

The Shadow Education Secretary Angela Rayner has told Marr of her exasperation over the pace of dealing with anti-Semitism within the Labour party.

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