Welsh Labour ‘should be ready to go it alone’
WELSH Labour should “absolutely” be prepared to split from the UK party if it backs a hard Brexit, according to former minister Leighton Andrews.
Mr Andrews, one of the biggest names in the Welsh party before losing his Rhondda Assembly seat to Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood, said there was “no question” that it should be ready to contemplate a divorce.
He was alarmed by an article by Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade Barry Gardiner, in which the Labour frontbencher argued that the UK must leave the single market and the customs union.
Mr Andrews considered the argument “idiotic”.
When asked if Welsh Labour should consider a divorce if UK Labour backed a hard Brexit, he told the BBC: “Absolutely. No question.
“The reality, I think, is that there is a difference we’re now seeing, I think by those parts of the Labour Party who have experience of government and experience of running things, and that’s clearly the case with the Welsh Labour Government, and those in opposition who have not only no experience of government but also little experience in practice of shadow ministry.”
Mr Andrews, who is now Professor of Practice in Public Service Leadership and Innovation at Cardiff Business School, has argued on his website that if the Parliamentary Labour Party will not “stand up” to Mr Gardiner and UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn “then Welsh Labour should split from UK Labour”.
First Minister Carwyn Jones has argued strongly for the UK to seek a similar arrangement to Norway, which is outside the EU but as a member of the European Economic Area participates in the single market.
Former UK Labour leader Neil Kinnock has also warned against a hard Brexit, stating: “The only way to mitigate the dreadful instability that will be costly for communities and industry is to try to ensure that, at least for a transitional period, we retain participation in the single market or the customs union, or both.”
Mr Andrews told the BBC: “I honestly think that if the UK Labour Party cannot get itself together on this most fundamental of all issues, then I think Labour at a UK level will be in a very dire position. In that case, given the success of Welsh Labour, particularly at the most recent general election, in Assembly elections and the fact that Welsh Labour remains in Government, I think there was a very strong case at the beginning of
the week for taking steps to protect Welsh Labour, its identity and its role.
“Now, I think that over the course of the week we’ve seen UK Labour moving back towards the Welsh Labour position and I think that’s good news.”
He said he thinks the “UK Labour leadership has been scrabbling to put its position back together” because it “realised how seriously Barry Gardiner had detonated unity in Labour.”
Mr Andrews, who says he is “completely opposed to Brexit” and wants a second referendum, said it was “absurd for Labour to be looking like it supported the hardest of all Brexits”.
When asked if a Labour split could result in two Labour parties competing in Wales, he said: “Well, I don’t think that’s how it would play out and that’s not actually at the end of the day the outcome I want to see. What I actually want to see is a strong, clear-sighted Welsh Labour party that is influencing and providing direction for UK Labour.”
David Taylor, a former Labour special advisor, said on Twitter: “It pains me to disagree with my old boss [Mr Andrews] but his Welsh Labour ‘divorce’ proposal is flawed. For it to be a genuine divorce/split, two parties (UK Labour and Welsh Labour) would have to contest elections against each other.
“As soon as that happens we can probably wave goodbye to [Welsh Labour].”
He said that for “parties not to contest elections against each other requires pacts/alliances, in reality much like what the Labour Party is now”.
Mr Taylor said that “continual hollow threats of divorce or constitutional crises” fall “on deaf ears in London”.