Where were they when it mattered?

I AM fascinated at the

shameless brass neck being demonstrated by Sunderland’s Labour MPs in response to the completely unsurprising government reports showing how seriously Brexit will harm the local economy of the North East.

Bridget Phillipson MP (Houghton and Sunderland South), writing on Twitter, slammed the Government for placating Tory hardliners with their position on Brexit.

But it was Bridget and her party who gave Tory hardliners a blank cheque on Brexit when they triggered Article 50 without preconditions.

Meanwhile Julie Elliott, MP for Sunderland Central, has been in the press and on social media, saying that “the Government urgently needs to look again at keeping the UK in the Customs Union.”

Julie urgently needs to look at her own voting record. On 20th December, she took part in the debate on Clause 13 to the EU Withdrawal Bill, which would have allowed the UK to stay in the Customs Union after exiting the EU. Jeremy Corbyn whipped his MPs not to vote for it; and Julie accordingly didn’t vote for it. Some North Eastern MPs stuck to their guns and have defied the Labour whip over the party’s Brexit stance.

But none of Sunderland’s did, and it shows incredible hypocrisy to be wringing their hands and coming out with these sorts of comments about Sunderland’s future now that it is politically expedient, rather than back when they could have made a difference.

NIALL HODSON leader of the Liberal Democrat group, Sunderland City Council