A time for MPS to do their democratic duty
Next week, we discover whether or not the Commons truly represents the people. Remember that both Labour and Conservative MPS were elected on a promise to deliver Brexit. Labour’s manifesto was vague on detail, but the Tories clearly pledged to take the country out of the single market and customs union. Bearing that in mind, on Tuesday and Wednesday the Commons will debate amendments to the EU Withdrawal Bill made by the House of Lords, along with an alternative Labour amendment on single market access. MPS must, in obedience to their manifestos and the referendum result, strike down any attempt to thwart Brexit.
How can any British politician at this stage comfortably ally themselves with the EU? There was a lot of attention paid to a spat between David Davis and Theresa May on Thursday morning over whether or not the UK’S request to remain within the customs “backstop” should be time-limited. Whatever differences they had look trifling in light of Brussels’s reply: Michel Barnier, its chief negotiator, said that only Northern Ireland can remain in the backstop, not the entire UK. The EU has insisted as a point of (alleged) principle that Britain cannot cherry-pick: this is an example of the EU cherry-picking. Worse, it wants to divide a sovereign state in two.
What is the proper response from Britain? In his leaked remarks to Conservative activists, Boris Johnson said that there was “method” in Donald Trump’s negotiating tactics. Few would want to emulate them just yet: the fruits of Mr Trump’s experiment in creative destruction are unclear. But if the atmosphere at the G7 meeting in Canada is awkward, it’s not only because of Mr Trump’s steel and aluminium tariffs. It’s also because he’s had the audacity to list the many tariffs that countries currently impose on US goods. For too long, international diplomacy has been conducted with hypocrisy masked by politeness. Brexit and the Trump vote were revolts against this dishonest status quo.
Tory rebel MPS should take note. If they fail to deliver Brexit, they will spark another revolt that will produce a Trump or a Corbyn or perhaps something even more radical. It has historically been the job of centre-right conservatives to identify the tensions in society and reform in order to resolve them. The alternative is revolution. That’s why Mrs May has to redouble her efforts to assert the special relationship, expand free trade, get a good deal from Brussels and preserve the Union from outside interference. It’s also why the EU Withdrawal Bill needs to pass through Parliament as smoothly as possible.
The peers have tried to: 1) complicate the Brexit process by demanding oversight of transferred regulation; and 2) force the Government to commit to remaining in the European Economic Area and customs union. Who are they to make such demands? As this weekend’s honours list will no doubt prove, Britain has been handing out titles with gay abandon in recent decades, with the result that the Lords is stuffed with men and women who have no mandate and overwhelmingly reflect one political point of view. The Europhile Liberal Democrats, for instance, have only 12 MPS and yet boast 98 peers. The purpose of the second chamber is to provide oversight, not to overrule the elected government and impose its own, radically different agenda. The behaviour of so many peers is fundamentally undemocratic.
To repeat: if Tory rebels conspire with them, it will provoke an enormous backlash at the ballot box. Even Jeremy Corbyn has implicitly recognised this, which must be why he has put down his own, dithering motion on negotiating access to the single market. Labour is just as torn over Brexit as the Tories. But fudge won’t win the final prize. Conservatives should pay attention to the polling evidence that shows them winning Labour voters over – undoubtedly on the issue of Brexit. The future of conservatism lies in exiting the EU. Compromise at home or abroad on the basics of Brexit would be a profound mistake.