Corbyn set for rebellion by MPS on single market
JEREMY Corbyn looks set to face a major rebellion today when dozens of his MPS prepare to defy him by backing a move to keep Britain in the European single market.
As the Commons embarks on a second day of debate on the EU Withdrawal Bill, the issue of continuing membership of the European Economic Area (EEA) will be a key subject for discussion, as will the issue of whether the UK should remain a member of the custom union.
After Theresa May yesterday avoided a major rebellion and an embarrassing Commons defeat, the political focus will turn to divisions within the Labour Party.
As many as 70 of its MPS could back a Lords amendment to keep Britain in the EEA, which would lead to it becoming an effective associate member of the market.
The party’s official position is to reject continued EEA membership, the so-called Norway option, as this would make the UK a “rule-taker not a rule-maker”. Instead, it wants to negotiate a deal through which the country would stay as close as possible to the single market while not being a member.
Ahead of today’s debate, Mr Corbyn made clear Labour could“not settle for a Norway-style deal for the UK, which, he argued, had “serious drawbacks”.
Labour’s frontbench has already tabled amendments to the bill aimed at delivering the same benefits as single market membership.
In a Facebook post, the party leader said the Norway model would mean taking rules from Brussels without a role in making them and would not help set up a new customs union with the EU or avoid a hard border in Northern Ireland.
Mr Corbyn said: “We cannot settle for this. Labour will only vote for a final Brexit deal if it delivers a strong relationship with the single market based on full tariff-free access and ensures no loss of rights and standards.
“Together with a new customs union, that would ensure a strong and balanced package to protect UK jobs and living standards, put a floor under rights and protections and ensure no hard border.”
The Labour divisions on the EEA mean Theresa May looks set not to be defeated on the issue.
On the question of the customs union, it looks likely that a compromise move instigated by Sir Oliver Letwin, the Prime Minister’s former policy adviser, will stay Conservative rebels’ hands. He is proposing a new “customs arrangement” rather than a customs union.
This, it is thought, will buy the Government time as it tries to persuade a number of backbenchers not to side with Labour in seeking to keep Britain in a customs union ahead of the Brexit Trade
Bill next month.
Elsewhere, the Government made it clear last night that it had not and would not agree to MPS binding its hands in the Brexit negotiations after Mrs May successfully saw off a threatened rebellion on the so-called meaningful vote with the promise of concessions.
After MPS voted by 324 to 298 to reject a House of Lords amendment to the EU Withdrawal Bill, which would have given Parliament the power to tell the PM to go back and renegotiate the Brexit deal she secured from Brussels, the Brexit Department said: “On the meaningful vote we have agreed to look for a compromise when this goes back to the Lords.
“The Brexit Secretary has set out three tests that any new amendment has to meet: not undermining the negotiations; not changing the constitutional role of Parliament and Government in negotiating international treaties and respecting the referendum result.”