Labour backbenchers say they will help pass Johnson’s Brexit deal
Tony Blair has urged MPS not to hold a Brexit general election, saying the idea was a “vast elephant trap”.
The former Labour prime minister said that he believed it was still possible to stop Brexit in its tracks, but only through a referendum.
He said: “I have one major pleathatimakeofmps– to think about the choices they’re going to make over the next few weeks.
“If there is a deadlock – and let’s be clear there’s no majority for a no-deal Brexit and it would be voted down by a large number of MPS – the right thing indeed is to go back to the people, but I beg and plead not by way of a general election.
“To fix a general election now, on the specific issue of Brexit, is wrong in principle and wrong on the politics.”
Speaking at an event in Edinburgh, Mr Blair said the strategy of the Conservative Party was clear - to have a Brexit general election. That, he said, was a “vast elephant trap of great width and depth, with great neon signs flashing around it saying elephant trap, elephants of limited awareness please fall in”.
He warned opposition parties to avoid it. “They should be absolutely clear that a general election should not be mixed up with the specific question of Brexit otherwise there’s a substantial risk we end up with a no-deal Brexit, not because the country wants it, but because the opposition vote is divided and Conservatives claim a mandate in a general election.
“Brexit, as we speak, is one of the things that’s upended politics, but it could still go either way, no deal or no Brexit, and we should have referendum on it.”
Mr Blair has long campaigned for the UK to remain in the EU, and said Brexit, along with austerity and a far left Labour party, had upended politics. However, he believed that together, these three events would ultimately push people to demand a politics “more rooted in the rational centre – for a politics that’s less divided than the politics we have presently, for a politics that reaches for policies to unify.”
He added: “My belief is that it will be clear over these next months that there is potential for renewal for centre ground politics, I think that’s true for the UK as a whole and for Scotland as well.”
Brexit, he said, had had a A group of 19 Labour backbenchers have broken with Jeremy Corbyn to say they will vote for a Brexit deal if one emerges in the coming weeks.
With the government having secured the support of the DUP and a number of Eurosceptic Tories, the group says their backing would be “decisive” in passing a Brexit deal through the Commons - if one can be agreed with the EU.
The group includes MPS Gloria de Piero, Caroline Flint, Gareth Snell, Ruth Smeeth and Stephen Kinnock. It follows a warning from Mr Corbyn, who told the Commons last week that “no Labour MP could support” a deal put forward by Boris Johnson that “would be used as springboard to attack rights and standards in this country”.
In their letter, the backbenchers call on the 2016 EU referendum result to be “honoured without delay”.
“It is now over 1,200 days since the UK people made the decision to leave the European Union,” they write. “The British people have become exasperated with parliamentary deadlock.
“If a new deal can be brought back to the Commons in the coming weeks that avoids a no deal Brexit and ensures greater certainty during the UK’S departure, we believe it serves Britain’s national interest to approve it.
“Our votes will be decisive in determining the approval of that deal.”
The group goes to on to “urge the Commission, the EU27 and the UK government to work night and day, if required, to agree a deal so the UK Parliament can make a clear decision to close this chapter in the coming weeks.”
Meanwhile, Mr Corbyn’s chief of staff has been shifted to a new role leading the party’s election campaign efforts, following a reported power struggle in the leader’s Westminster office.
A Labour source denied Karie Murphy’s secondment amounted to a sacking, following reports that shadow Chancellor John Mcdonnell and shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott had been urging the Labour leader to move her from her role.
Ms Murphy was seen as one of the leading opponents of Labour changing its Brexit policy to embrace a second EU referendum and a proremain stance.
She is now expected to work from the party’s headquarters in Victoria, central London.
A Labour source said: “As we ramp up campaigning ahead of a general election, we are maximising the use of the resources we have to ensure we are successful.
“Karie will drive this crucial work from HQ, as she did during the last election.”