Labour Party plans Brexit debate
LIVERPOOL, England — Britain’s main opposition Labour Party confirmed yesterday it will hold a major debate on Brexit at its party conference this week, raising hopes among Labour members hoping to stop the country from leaving the European Union.
With the U.K. and the European Union at an impasse in divorce talks, many Labour members think the left-of-center party has the power — and a duty — to force a new referendum that could reverse Britain’s decision to leave the 28-nation bloc.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has long opposed that idea, but he and other party leaders are under pressure to change their minds. As delegates gathered in Liverpool, one message was emblazoned on hundreds of T-shirts and tote bags: “Love Corbyn, Hate Brexit.”
Ever since Britain voted in 2016 to leave the EU, Labour has said it will respect the result, although it wants a closer relationship with the bloc than the one Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative government is seeking.
Now, with divorce negotiations stuck and Britain due to leave in March, many Labour members think the party must change its course.
“Labour have to come to a decision. The time has gone for sitting on the fence,” said Mike Buckley of Labour for a People’s Vote, a group campaigning for a new Brexit referendum.
To drive home the message, several thousand People’s Vote supporters marched through Liverpool, waving blue-and-yellow EU flags alongside Union Jacks and holding signs reading “Exit from Brexit” and a few ruder slogans.
More than 100 local Labour associations submitted motions to the conference urging a public plebiscite, with a choice between leaving on terms agreed upon by the government or staying in the EU.
Party chiefs said members and affiliated unions had selected Brexit as one of the priority issues delegates will consider, with a debate scheduled for tomorrow. But what exactly they will vote on has yet to be decided, and will be crucial.
Margaret Mills, a delegate from Orpington in southern England, said her local party had passed a motion calling on Labour to “stop Brexit by any means — well, short of physical violence.”
“I think the time for vagueness is over,” she said.
Corbyn — a veteran socialist who views the EU with suspicion — has long been against holding a second public vote on Brexit, although his opposition appears to be softening.
He said yesterday that he would prefer a general election rather than a referendum, but added: “Let’s see what comes out of conference.
“Obviously I’m bound by the democracy of our party,” Corbyn told the BBC.