The EU debate now returns to the Commons
by Jeremy Corbyn’s frontbench on the customs union issue.
Caroline Flint is expected to be a key figure in the coming debates. The former Labour Europe Secretary voted Remain in the EU referendum while 68.5 per cent of voters in her Don Valley constituency backed Leave. She has since recognised that anything less than a full break with Brussels will be seen as a betrayal by many of those voters. “Parliament should reject Brexit game-playing and accept the country’s decision.”
Many other Labour MPs in the North and Midlands are in a similar position but few of them so far have been prepared to be as outspoken as Ms Flint. One senior Labour Brexit supporter said: “The votes of about 10 or 15 Labour MPs will make all the difference. They could be the ones who determine the success or failure of Brexit.”
Some Labour MPs wonder whether Westminster’s customs union debate is too esoteric to make an impression on voters in the party’s heartlands. The challenge for the Brexiteers is to show that, by imposing Brussels tariffs on imports of goods from outside the EU, the customs union is driving up the prices of consumer goods.
If they can make the argument that a full Brexit will deliver cheaper food, clothes and other household necessities for working-class families, many Labour MPs will face intense pressure from constituents to back the Government on the issue.
Building an alliance across the Left-Right divide for her Brexit plans will be a harsh challenge for the Prime Minister and her team. But after the damage wreaked by the gilded old establishment in the Lords she needs to find friends wherever she can.