Labour Brexit motion keeps door open to staying in EU
liverpool — Britain’s Labour overwhelmingly approved its Brexit motion with a show of hands on Tuesday, paving the way for the party to reject any deal with the EU that fails to meet its tests and to keep open the option of a second referendum.
Only a few members of Britain’s main opposition party were seen to vote against the motion, passed at the party’s conference in the northern city of Liverpool.
The Brexit spokesman of the Labour Party Keir Starmer told the leftwing party’s conference that another vote on Britain’s relationship with the European Union should still be an option, in an attempt to bridge Labour’s divisions on Brexit.
Many young, metropolitan, newer members vociferously oppose leaving the bloc, but older, working-class voters from the party’s traditional heartlands are in favour.
“It’s right that parliament has the first say” on any Brexit deal the government strikes with Brussels, Starmer told the party’s annual conference in Liverpool, northwest England.
“But if we need to break an impasse, our options must include campaigning for a public vote — and nobody is ruling out Remain as an option,” he said in an unscripted addition — to huge cheers and a standing ovation.
Hours after Starmer’s speech, delegates formally approved a motion pledging party support for “all options remaining on the table”, including the possibility of a second referendum.
The motion’s wording was agreed Monday after five hours of intense talks.
Starmer said that if May struck a deal that did not match Labour’s expectations — something he said “seems increasingly likely” — then it would vote against the deal in parliament.
If that happened, May would need the backing of almost all her Conservative MPs to approve the deal, which seems unlikely given the centre-right party’s own ideological splits.
It would also radically increase the risk that Britain leaves the EU in March without any agreement at all, throwing the whole process, and the government, into chaos.
Starmer said Labour wanted a general election to break a Brexit deadlock in parliament. —