MPS who deny us a vote are cowards

The opposition parties have agreed among themselves to vote down a general election next week in Parliament. The official story is that they want to make sure a no-deal Brexit is off the agenda. The truth is, Labour doesn’t want to go to the people yet. It isn’t ready. That became painfully clear when Emily Thornberry was asked to explain Labour’s Brexit policy on Thursday night’s BBC Question Time.

If elected to power, Labour would go back to Brussels and negotiate a new withdrawal deal, she said. It would then hold a referendum in which Ms Thornberry, Labour’s choice for foreign secretary, would campaign for Remain on the basis that no deal with the EU could ever be as good as staying in the EU. Never mind what this says about Ms Thornberry’s diplomatic skills, the UK would look absolutely mad if its government negotiated a deal, only for its frontbenchers to denounce it and campaign against – and what kind of deal would we be offered anyway? Not a very good one if it has been written off in advance.

Labour doesn’t want an election because it still can’t decide where it sits in the Brexit debate. It straddles two constituencies, the patriotic working class and metropolitan liberals. Its MPS prefer Remain, but some of them occupy seats threatened by Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson. The longer they dither, however, the faster they are eclipsed by the Lib Dems – revitalised by their unthinking, unblinking Europhilia. The Lib Dem message is very straightforward in an election that would be largely about Europe, something like “vote Swinson to Stay”. Labour’s message would be “vote Labour to renegotiate and hold a referendum”. It won’t look so good on a poster.

What we’ve seen in Parliament this week is a lot of procedural nonsense, justification in effect for the prorogation that a High Court told Gina Miller and Sir John Major is perfectly legal: the Government probably wanted to avoid these theatrics, designed, as they are, not just to delay Brexit but to prevent it. Commons chicanery has nevertheless triumphed, leaving No 10 with one weapon: a general election. But the Remainers, having spent two years demanding a referendum or an election, have decided that they would prefer to sit things out on the green benches. In the name of democracy, they would defer an election. Their behaviour is cowardly and hypocritical and the public can see right through it.