Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
We must step back from the brink... then really listen to voice of Britain
Breakaway TIG to be ‘free of the old parties’ tribalism’
After the biggest political party breakaways in four decades and with ministers in open revolt, Wednesday’s debate is Parliament’s High Noon.
Crashing catastrophically out of Europe next month will risk our food supply, manufacturing trade, medicine imports and industry’s critical flow of components.
Wednesday is now the time for Parliament to put things right – and to reunite a divided country.
Extending Article 50 – and therefore negotiating time – will prevent us hurtling off a cliff on March 29th.
It would avoid the chaos which could turn miles of southern Britain’s motorways into a lorry park, threatens a state of emergency, and risks what government sources say may turn into martial law.
Extension is now the only sensible game in town. And it can be done. It would let us reflect, reconsider and renegotiate Mrs May’s botched terms.
Former PM John Major has also indicated he supports extending Article 50. He is anxious, as I am, to prevent a deal that puts the very existence of the UK at risk.
After two years of bungled negotiations and now stalemate, the public are so fed up with the Brexit process they just want it all to end.
But, whatever happens, it WON’T be over by March 30th. We are only at the end of the beginning. We must still agree
new trading relationships with Europe and the rest of the world.
So instead of lurching from one failed short-term fix to another, would it not be better to find out where we really want to end up and then work out how we get there?
By using that time to listen to the voices of British people on immigration, sovereignty, the state of manufacturing and our future?
So over the next three days we should press our MPs to vote for an extension for a positive purpose – region-by-region public hearings on the Brexit options.
A consultation is needed, not just to end the Parliamentary deadlock, but to halt and repair the breakdown of trust between the British people and their politicians so dramatically exposed this week.
Hardly anyone now believes Parliament and government can get it right by themselves.
And it’s difficult to see how the toxic, deadlocked European dispute can be properly resolved without a broader and more inclusive engagement by the British people.
As polls confirm, they don’t only want to express their anger and frustration. They now want a say in the process – through a second referendum or by other means.
Nearly four in 10 support the idea of a Citizens’ Assembly – hearings all over the country where the people would examine different options.
In my view they would find greater agreement than has been possible in the Westminster hothouse.
Parliament would be stronger if it understood the hopes and fears and wisdom of people.
The next generation of historians will look back in stunned disbelief at the chaos that has unfolded in Britain over the past two and a half years. We have only three days to draw back from the brink.
INDEPENDENT Group founder member Chuka Umunna today gives the clearest indication yet that its MPs plan to create a new Social Democratic Party.
Writing exclusively in this paper, the Labour defector says The Independent Group (TIG) “will forge a new, different kind of politics for Britain’s future”.
That echoes Labour’s Gang of Four – Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams – announcing in 1981 that they would “break the mould of British politics” by forming the SDP.
But Streatham, South London, MP Mr Umunna says that while the SDP was “basically Labour 2.0”, the new group is not.
He adds: “It’s clear for all to see that politics is broken. We must not recreate the old parties with their tribalism and incompetence.”
At present TIG has eight former Labour MPs and three ex-Tories.
But, as the new group struggles towards becoming a fully-fledged party, it is already on track to replace the Scottish National Party as Britain’s third largest force.
The Liberal Democrats have pledged to work with the new group and their 11 MPs would swell numbers to 22 in an expected merger.
Nine more Labour MPs are said to be on the verge of jumping ship and four more Tories are agonising over joining them. That would bring the rebels to 35 – the same number of MPs as the SNP.
The magic number is 36, so only one more defector would be needed.
Once TIG becomes a proper political party it could snaffle chairmanships of powerful select committees, get a regular slot to grill Theresa May at Prime Minister’s Questions and be eligible for £800,000 in state funding.
But its MPs would have to win at an election first – yet another reason for Mrs May to avoid being sucked into one.
Tory former Education Secretary Justine Greening and ex-Justice Minister
Phillip Lee have threatened to quit the party if Mrs May does not take a No Deal Brexit off the negotiating table.
Yesterday Mrs May told Tory activists in Oxford she would not do that. But to try to stop more defections she promised not to take revenge on rebels, in contrast to Labour’s deselections threat. Mrs May said: “We are not a party of purges and retribution.”
Jeremy Corbyn yesterday singled out his rebel Chris Leslie for criticism when he spoke in Tory defector Anna Soubry’s Broxtowe, Nottinghamshire, seat. He said: “Walking away from our movement achieves nothing. Almost immediately after leaving, Leslie tells us that we should not be ending university fees or increasing the tax for the richest in the country.”
Ian Austin, who on Friday became the ninth MP to quit Labour, says he will not be joining the new group – for now.
His position is tricky because he represents the Leave seat Dudley North. And TIGs are all Remainers.
One senior MP claimed TIG had the private support of four Prime Ministers, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Sir John Major and David Cameron. There was no confirmation and Mr Cameron texted defectors Ms Soubry, Heidi Allen and Sarah Wollaston, begging them not to join TIG.
TIG was announced on Monday because a key player, Luciana Berger, is due to give birth soon.
Peers were expected to join the group but so far only one, Tory former Pensions Minister Ros Altmann, has publicly said she might. There are also many of the 2,000 independent local councillors who might be persuaded to sign up.