Brexit infighting hits Tories and Labour
BOTH the Tories and Labour descended into Brexit infighting yesterday with leading figures contradicting each other on how to handle departure from the European Union.
There was confusion in Labour’s top team as deputy leader Tom Watson refused to rule out a second EU referendum just an hour after his Shadow Cabinet colleague Diane Abbott said the party don’t support a second poll.
And in a sign of the Cabinet rows to come, Boris Johnson said he was planning a fresh intervention this week to push for a “liberal Brexit”.
A special Brexit cabinet will meet today to hammer out what relationship the UK should have with the EU after leaving. Theresa May’s full Cabinet will then meet tomorrow.
Brexiteer Johnson said the PM must ensure the UK can “maximise the benefits of Brexit”.
The Foreign Secretary said if the UK was forced to mirror EU laws for years after leaving, “we would have gone from a member state to a vassal state”.
His comments came after Chancellor Philip Hammond angered anti-EU Tory MPs by saying the UK would “effectively replicate the status quo” during the two-year transition phase after March 2019.
Meanwhile, Lib Dem leader Vince Cable called on SNP MPs to back an amendment to the Government’s Brexit Bill that would allow a second referendum to be held.