General election can bring change

OUR country is divided. Arguments over Brexit have driven people apart in our communities and sometimes in the Labour Party too.

As democrats, Labour accepted the result of the 2016 referendum. In our 2017 manifesto, we committed to oppose a No-Deal Brexit and the Tories’ disastrous plans – which threaten jobs, living standards, and the open multicultural society that we as internationalists value so much.

We developed a compromise based around a customs union, a strong single market relationship and protection of rights at work and environmental standards. We continue to believe this is a sensible alternative that could bring the country together.

But the Prime Minister refused to compromise, so we ended talks.

Now, both Tory leadership candidates are threatening a No Deal Brexit – or at best, a race to the bottom and a sweetheart deal with Donald Trump that runs down industry, opens up our NHS to yet more privatisation and shreds standards on vital things like food safety and workers’ rights.

Whoever becomes Prime Minister should have the confidence to put their deal, or No Deal, back to the people in a public vote.

In those circumstances, Labour would campaign for Remain.

We need a general election to bring real change to our country.

Our country is ravaged by inequality and rising poverty, huge regional imbalances of investment and the Government is failing to tackle the climate emergency facing us all.

That is why we need a Labour government to end austerity and rebuild our country for the many, not the few.