Keep paying EU for ever ... it’s Labour’s barmy Brexit
LABOUR would rather pay Brussels indefinitely than walk away without a deal, the shadow Brexit secretary said yesterday.
Sir Keir Starmer confirmed that the party would always negotiate with the EU, no matter how punishing the bloc’s terms are.
And, for the first time, he suggested that Labour would be willing to give Europe billions a year after Brexit to secure access to the single market.
Asked if Labour would be prepared to continue paying into the EU budget for ever, he told ITV’s Peston on Sunday: ‘We’ll have to see, subject to negotiations, obviously, ideally no, or keep it low, but in the end… it’s a very simple thing, if economically it’s better off to have an arrangement that works for our businesses and secures our economy then we’d do it.
‘I mean anybody who says, “I would rather have an arrangement that actually damages our business”, needs to think again about why they’re negotiating.’
Sir Keir also said it was time for Theresa May to abandon her ‘red lines’, such as that Britain should leave the European Court of Justice.
But former Tory cabinet minister John Redwood last night said it would be ‘crazy’ to pay the EU for access to a market that sells more to the UK than we sell to them.
He said: ‘I am flabbergasted that Labour would want to give our money to rich countries on the continent rather than spending it on our own priorities.
‘I don’t think it is even legal under World Trade rules to offer bribes in return for trade.
‘We are the customer more than we are the supplier in our trading with the EU – why would we want to pay for that?’
Meanwhile, shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said Labour would join forces with diehard Tory Remainers to block any attempt to leave the EU without a deal. Mr McDonnell said he was ‘ not willing to countenance no deal’, adding: ‘I don’t think there’s a majority in the House of Commons for no deal.’
Ten pro-Remain Tory MPs are publicly backing a cross-party amendment to the EU Withdrawal Bill that would force ministers to enshrine the Brexit deal in a separate act of Parliament.
This would allow Remainers to vote down any final deal. The move would undermine Mrs May’s negotiating strategy by removing the option of walking away if Brussels tries to punish the UK.
Brexiteer Tory Suella Fernandes said it was clear that Labour would accept ‘ any Brexit deal at any cost to ordinary working families’.
She added: ‘This proves that Labour would be prepared to see the UK at the EU’s beck and call for years to come, which is not what people voted for last June.’
And Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said MPs would plunge the UK into legal chaos if they voted down the final agreement.
Describing the plan as ‘complete nonsense’, he added: ‘What the Withdrawal Bill does is it ensures a smooth transition for our laws so that people can be certain that the law that applies the day before is the law that applies the day after.
‘John McDonnell threatening to derail this Bill is John McDonnell threatening to create the kind of chaotic Brexit he himself is warning against.’
Hillary Clinton claimed Brexit was won with a ‘big lie’ – but admitted ignorance of Project Fear. In an interview with the BBC’s Andrew Marr, the failed presidential candidate said that Brexit involved ‘fabricated, false information’ by the Leave campaign.
But when it was put to her that the other side also spread falsehoods to scare people into voting Remain, she said she was ‘not as familiar’ with those.
‘Bribes in return for trade’
In these febrile days of Tory Cabinet infighting, the sinister agenda of the Left has been almost criminally overlooked.
But this weekend, we were offered a disturbing glimpse through the looking glass into their Alice In Wonderland world.
First, Jeremy Corbyn boasted that Chancellor Philip Hammond was right to describe him as ‘an existential challenge’ to the capitalist economic model. Indeed, mr Corbyn wouldn’t just challenge it, he’d tear it down.
His alternative was a glorious socialist utopia, where renationalised industries would be run as cooperatives and employees of private companies would have ‘a right to own’ their firms, if they were about to be sold.
And businesses like Uber and Deliveroo would be run by their drivers, who would set fares and share profits in a brave new world of workers’ control.
of course, these tired (and failed) old marxist cliches were hailed as exciting new ideas. It was as if the 1970s never happened. meanwhile, Shadow Chancellor John mcDonnell risibly demanded that Parliament must be given a ‘meaningful vote’ on the final outcome of Brexit talks – even in the event of no deal.
A vote on no deal? What would be the earthly point in that? If the vote went against the government, would our negotiators be sent back, cap in hand, and told to accept any deal Brussels had the benevolence to offer – however bad? It’s simply absurd.
of course, this bluster is designed to obscure Labour’s own gaping divisions on Europe. Half the party – including most of its mPs – don’t want to leave at all, while the other half – including mr Corbyn and mr mcDonnell – are committed Brexiteers.
That’s why no one knows their Brexit policy from one day to the next.
In a sane world, none of this would matter, as the electorate would see straight through Labour’s disastrous agenda and dismiss it as a serious party of government. But because the Tory Cabinet has been so divided, the opinion polls are neck and neck.
These feuding ministers must understand that if their fractiousness allows mr Corbyn into Downing Street (a chilling but by no means impossible scenario) they will never be forgiven – either by their party or by their country.