Labour leader’s pro-brexit policy branded a ‘betrayal’ of workers
A SCOTTISH Labour Lord has claimed that Jeremy Corbyn’s pro-brexit policy is a “betrayal” of British workers as dozens of peers prepare to defy their leader by voting to keep the UK in the European single market.
Former Scotland Office minister Lord Foulkes will today join about 40 or so Labour colleagues in the Upper House to back an amendment to the EU Withdrawal Bill that backs Britain joining the European Economic AREA[EEA], which would see the country stay in the single market, albeit without being part of its decision-making process.
“I am not prepared to support a pro-brexit policy that betrays the workers of the UK,” declared Lord Foulkes, who is a supporter of the Scottish Labour for the single market campaign.
He explained: “It would be a dereliction of duty to abstain on this vital issue and I will be joining many Labour colleagues in supporting the policy agreed at our UK conference and sending the leadership a message that we must urgently do what’s right for the UK and prevent a hard Tory Brexit.”
The Labour peer said there was now a majority to keep Britain in the single market when the issue returned to the Commons, “provided,” he stressed, “Labour stands up to Theresa May and her Brexiteer allies”.
Lord Foulkes added; “We need a united front to prevent a hard Brexit and Scottish Labour has a key role to play in persuading the UK party to urgently change course. If we fail to do so, voters will never forgive us.”
His Labour colleague Baroness Liddell, the former Scottish secretary, said she had made up her mind to vote for the EEA amendment even before the party leadership had called on Labour peers to abstain.
She explained the UK needed a “fall-back position” to protect Britain’s financial services as they would not receive the necessary protection in any free trade deal.
“This is of growing importance to the Scottish economy; there is a lot of back-office activity in Scotland and asset management in Edinburgh. I don’t see a situation that’s around at the moment that can protect that,” added Lady Liddell, who pointed out she was on the Lords’ committee scrutinising the financial sector aspects of the bill. “It’s a no-brainer,” she added.
At the weekend, Mr Corbyn was accused of “complete cowardice” by Labour peer Lord Alli, one of the signatories to the peers’ amendment, accusing the party leadership of being “paralysed by indecision”. He said: “There is no point in being in politics to abstain; if you stand in the middle of the road someone is going to knock you over.”
His Labour colleague Chuka Umunna, the former shadow business secretary, pointed out how Labour MPS, voters and trade unionists backed the EEA proposal and that Labour MPS last year had been whipped to support it. “Yet now, when there are enough Tory rebels, we abstain; this is ridiculous,” he said.
Labour’s policy is to create a new customs union with the EU27 and get as close to the single market as possible but not as a member of the EEA; often described as the Norway option.
Last week, the Government suffered a 10th defeat over the its flagship Withdrawal Bill when the Lords voted for an amendment that would prevent the Government implementing Brexit in a way that undermined the Good Friday Agreement or led to a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.
It would be a dereliction of duty to abstain on this vital issue