Labour facing a backlash on Brexit decision
MPs say bid to vote down Bill would be a ‘betrayal’
THE LABOUR Party is facing a potential backlash from supporters after threatening to vote down a “crucial” piece of legislation in an act that critics warn could derail the Brexit process.
The party last night came under fire from its own MPs and councillors for the decision, with some suggesting that any attempt to block the Bill will be seen as a “betrayal of the British people”.
Tory MPs and Ministers also rounded on the Labour leadership yesterday, accusing them of undermining the Government’s efforts to secure a new deal with the EU. But Labour MPs hit back as they warned that the Government’s lack of progress and “unrealistic” demands in negotiations risk Britain ending up with “no deal”.
The Labour leadership announced their intention to vote against the EU Withdrawal Bill ahead of its second reading in the Commons today.
The Bill is designed to transfer all relevant EU legislation into UK law in a bid to avoid a legal and regulatory “cliff-edge” after Brexit, but critics warn that certain clauses in the document would award the Government “sweeping powers” to change laws “by the back door”.
A Labour spokesman yesterday confirmed that the party had therefore decided it could not support the Bill in its current form. “Labour fully respects the democratic decision to leave the European Union [and] voted to trigger Article 50,” they said. “But as democrats we cannot vote for a Bill that unamended would let Government Ministers grab powers from parliament to slash people’s rights at work and reduce protection for consumers and the environment.”
The announcement follows an appeal by the Don Valley MP Caroline Flint, who on Sunday urged her colleagues against taking a “wrecking ball approach” to the vote. It was met with contempt from a number of Tory MPs, who accused the party of “recklessness”.
The Thornbury MP Luke Hall warned that opposing the Bill “without presenting any alternative approach risks defying the result of the referendum, and risks the most chaotic of Brexit scenarios”. While the veteran Tory MP Bill Cash mocked the party for moving from being “remainers to reversers”.
The Labour Brexiteer Kate Hoey also condemned the move, stating that anyone who votes against the “crucial” Bill at second reading is “betraying the will of the British people”. She was backed up by a Brighton Labour councillor who took to Twitter to urge the party to respect the referendum result.
However, Tory Minsters have also come under pressure for their performance in Brexit negotiations.
Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer yesterday called on the Government to drop some of its “deeply flawed red lines”, while the Edinburgh MP Ian Murray warned that Ministers’ “unrealistic expectations” increase the likelihood of leaving “with a bad deal – or even no deal”.
AS BREXIT takes centrestage at Westminster, Britain’s politicians need to remember why the country voted to leave the European Union rather than becoming too fixated with increasingly bitter arguments amongst themselves. Not only were taxpayers fed up with taking orders from an unelected and unaccountable Brussels elite, but many had endured the longest period of earnings stagnation for 150 years. They’d simply had enough.
Yet, because the process of Brexit is becoming so nuanced as rival politicians and parties seek advantage, Ministers, MPs and peers are losing sight of the fact that the country expects them to secure the deal that is in best long-term interests of the economy and it is high time they started pulling in the same direction.
For, unless this country’s leaders start coalescing around a clear negotiating strategy, the resulting uncertainty will only damage business confidence still further and exacerbate the misgivings expressed in today’s report by the IPPR think-tank. Its commission on economic injustice, whose members include notable figures like the Archbishop of Canterbury, highlights the extent to which gains from growth have gone largely into profits rather than the wages of staff concerned.
In many respects, the conclusions chime with the themes highlighted by Theresa May when she became Prime Minister. The regret is some of the more worthy ideas will not come to pass because the Tory leader is so weakened – politically and by Brexit – that her Government simply does not know how to break this self-perpetuating cycle that sees the rich become richer and the poor poorer.