All options on table for Brexit – Labour
All options remain on the table for cross-party talks to find a solution to Brexit, Labour has said – including being prepared to revoke Article 50 to avoid no-deal.
Teams from Labour and the Conservatives are expected to resume discussions today, amid reports both parties could give MPS a vote on putting any Brexit deal to the people in a referendum.
A member of Labour’s negotiating team said it would consider “very strongly” the option of revoking Article 50.
Labour has said all options remain on the table with crossparty talks set to resume today, including being prepared to revoke Article 50 and cancel Brexit if the UK is heading towards a no-deal scenario.
Shadow business minister Rebecca Long-bailey, a member of Labour’s negotiating team, said the party had promised members “that we will do all we can to avoid a no-deal situation and it’s something that we would consider very, very strongly”.
Signalling that talks aimed at reaching a deal with the Tories were expected to continue, she said: “Hopefully at the beginning of next week we will be having further discussions.”
Ms Long-bailey also said that Labour had raised the prospect of a second referendum to prevent a “damaging” or no-deal Brexit. Some 80 MPS, including frontbenchers, have written to party leader Jeremy Corbyn demanding a public vote on any deal that emerges from the talks.
Reports suggest the two parties are prepared to give MPS a vote on whether to put any Brexit deal to the people in a referendum, in a move that would present less risk for the government because a so-called People’s Vote has already been defeated in the House of Commons.
But in a sign of the challenge facing the prime minister from her own side as she tries to salvage a Brexit deal with Labour votes, Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom said the Tories were supporting cross-party talks “through gritted teeth”, adding that a second referendum is an “appalling” idea.
Theresa May sought to bolster hopes of a compromise in a video message filmed at Chequers and released yesterday, in which she said: “On Brexit I think there are some things we agree on: ending free movement, ensuring we leave with a good deal, protecting jobs, protecting security.
“It’ll mean compromise on both sides but I believe that delivering Brexit is the most important thing for us.”
Ms Long-bailey said it was “disappointing” there had not been any shift in the government’s red lines but “the overall mood is quite a positive one”. Labour’s key demand is for a customs union with Brussels in order to protect the flow of goods. Both sides also want to end the free movement of people from the EU.
Ms Long-bailey said in a TV interview Labour had discussed how changes to the Brexit agreement could be “entrenched” so a future Tory leader couldn’t reverse them.
But SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford MP said Labour should be “very careful” as any future government would not be bound by what was agreed by a previous one.
If Boris Johnson became prime minister, the risk of a hard Brexit would be “very real”, he said.
And Mr Blackford warned Labour to “be very careful… or quite simply you will pay a price at the ballot box in Scotland”.
Rudd and Johnson ponder joint bid to decide next Tory leader
The Prime Minister heads to Brussels on Wednesday for an emergency summit to secure a further delay to Brexit, with Mrs May hoping for an extension until 30 June at the latest, with the option of leaving the EU earlier if a deal is passed.
If no extension is agreed, then the UK is set to leave without a deal on Friday.
Ms Leadsom warned that her “expectation” was the Prime Minister would “only seek to agree those things that still constitute Brexit”.
She said Mrs May would never back revocation of Article 50, and insisted the UK could “survive and thrive” after a nodeal exit which would be “not nearly as grim as many would advocate”.
An alliance between Boris Johnson and Amber Rudd is being put forward by supporters as a way of bridging the Conservative Party’s Brexit divide as Tory leadership contenders jostle for position to succeed Theresa May.
The plan - dubbed “Bamber” for “Boris and Amber” – would see the Work and Pensions Secretary back Mr Johnson for the leadership in the hope that her influence would mean other MPS from the Remain wing of the party would follow.
Speculation about possible leadership contenders has heightened since Mrs May signalled she would leave office early if she could get a Brexit deal through.
By Paris Gourtsoyannis
While Ms Rudd is the leading figure on the Remain wing of the Tories, her own leadership credentials are undermined by her tiny majority in Hastings and Rye.
However, she is seen as a kingmaker with the ability to deliver support from proremain MPS, who will have a big say in the leadership race as the contenders are whittled down through ballots of the parliamentary Conservative Party.
During the referendum battle, Ms Rudd said Mr Johnson was “the life and soul of the party but he’s not the man you want driving you home at the end of the evening”.
Two Sunday newspapers reported on an unlikely alliance between the pair,
but said Ms Rudd had also considered the possibility of alliances with Defra Secretary Michael Gove or Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt.
Asked about the “Bamber” rumours, Brexiteer Jacob Rees-mogg said Mr Johnson could “unite the party and win an election” while Ms Rudd was a person of “firstclass capabilities”.
He said in a TV interview: “I think very highly of Boris Johnson, who managed to win in London twice in a Labour area, has a great connection with voters.”
Andrea Leadsom, who stood for the leadership in 2016, did not rule out another campaign. Asked what she learned from the experience, the Commons Leader said it was “be prepared”, adding that Leave campaigners were not ready when David Cameron’s resigned.
Treasury Chief Secretary Liz Truss, another contender, said the Conservative Party needed to “reinvent” itself.
She said she was “not thinking about” the leadership: “I’m talking about ideas”. In a radio interview, Ms Truss said 2019 “should be a year where the Conservative Party really says ‘what are we about, what does the future look like?’”
Former education secretary Justine Greening told a news podcast that she might stand if the field didn’t include another centrist. “For me it’s always been a vehicle for changing Britain for the better,” she said.