Brexit

39 Labour MPs rebel on Tory Brexit deal

In the Parliamentary vote on the Tories' Brexit deal, 30 December 2020, 39 Labour MPs (including two for now excluded from the Labour whip) defied Labour leader Keir Starmer's whip to vote for the deal. Three Labour front-benchers resigned in protest at Starmer's line. The Labour rebels abstained, all but one who voted against the deal (Bell Ribeiro-Addy). Our understanding is that the rebels had decided in advance on a collective position of abstaining to distance themselves from a possible right-wing Tory vote against the deal and for "no deal". In fact all the Tory right-wingers backed the...

Back Tories' Brexit deal? Morning Star says it doesn't matter!

With a characteristic smirk the charlatan Johnson portrayed his Christmas Eve deal with the EU as a personal triumph and proof that Britain can, indeed, eat its cake and have it. The “no- dealers” of the Tory-right ERG cabal were — initially, at least — not so sure, and immediately set up a “star chamber” to check that the deal was sufficiently free from continuing EU influence over the UK’s fishing quotas and other unspecified matters of tremendous importance. They concluded that the deal, while not perfect, was good enough to allow them to support it in Parliament. Over at the Morning Star...

Anti-Brexit left pledges to continue organising

Amid the uncertainty of the still-dragging negotiations, around 150 supporters attended the AGM of the left-wing anti-Brexit campaign Another Europe Is Possible on 12 December.

John McDonnell says: Labour must oppose a Tory Brexit deal

"I can't imagine any Brexit deal emerging that will protect the jobs and livelihoods of my constituents, that will protect our rights and the environment. I believe Labour should have nothing to do with this Tory deal and vote against it", declared John McDonnell MP at the Another Europe Is Possible AGM on 12 December 2020. The next day, 13 December, Ed Miliband as Shadow Business Secretary gave the strongest hint so far that the Labour front bench is, as he put, “minded to support” a deal, apparently more or less whatever is in it. As well as ending free movement between Britain and Europe -...

Tell the truth against Brexit!

As we go to press on 8 December, it seems to hang in the balance whether the Tories will conclude a post-Brexit trade deal with the EU. The Tory leadership is cultivating an image of being not too bothered either way. We will have either “No Deal” (which means a lot of short-term disruption, followed by a scramble to get some sketchy deal in the next years) or a bodged Brexit deal. The bodged last-minute Tory deal will leave many issues to be resolved, but will include the closing of borders to free movement from Europe and probably license systematic reduction over time of social provision...

Johnson: not anti-EU enough?

As the time runs out for a post-Brexit trade deal, the Morning Star is worried: Boris Johnson “is not ideologically anti-EU, let alone pro-No Deal” (all quotes from Morning Star editorial, 5-6 December). Yes, that’s the trouble with Johnson — he just can’t be trusted to take a hard line against Johnny Foreigner, even over fishing rights, which he “would sell... to France and Spain in order to ensure the City of London’s continuing unfettered access to Europe’s financial markets.” Meanwhile, the “intransigent” EU claims to have “fears — whether bogus or not — that Britain could engage in unfair...

No longer hating Brexit?

A group of Labour MPs previously associated with the “Love Socialism Hate Brexit” project have relaunched it as “Love Socialism”. (See the article by Clive Lewis, Rachael Maskell, Lloyd Russell-Moyle and Alex Sobel here , and their Twitter @lovesocialism .) Love Socialism flags up critical struggles like migrants’ rights, structural racism and climate change. The MPs driving it have a generally honourable record on such issues, and in that sense the initiative is welcome. So is their call to “confront suppressive forces, not to pander to this authoritarian national government. Call it out...

Labour must oppose a Tory Brexit deal!

The more-than-rumour is that Keir Starmer’s leadership will impose a parliamentary whip to force Labour MPs to back the Tory Brexit deal possibly coming soon — even a high-pressure “three-line whip”. There is no good Brexit. But any possible deal will fall at the hard, economically destructive, socially regressive end of the Brexit spectrum. The left and labour movement should oppose this big, convulsive step backwards. We should refuse responsibility for the Tories’ disastrous plans, and loudly tell the truth about what they represent. We should demand the Parliamentary Labour Party votes...

In the bleak midwinter

Three blows are likely to hit us in the first months of 2021: Brexit, a new pandemic lockdown, and a new wave of job cuts and closures. Lockdown pushes down many people who fall through the furlough net, or were looking for new or first jobs. Back in spring it looked like the biggest job cuts among previously well-established workers would come as lockdown eased . Companies which had stuck it out through lockdown with furlough money and government loans would then shut down or shrink, and those shutdowns would be magnified through their supply chains. Now we have a second lockdown, and a third...

Interview: What happened in Labour on Brexit

Michael Chessum, national organiser for Another Europe Is Possible , spoke in a personal capacity with Sacha Ismail. Written up and edited by George Wheeler. You’ve written an article on openDemocracy, arguing that the anti-Brexit Left made a serious mistake at the 2018 Labour Party conference. What’s your thinking? We’re in this period of mopping up after Corbynism, and I wanted to challenge myself to reflect about what we might have got wrong, rather than what others got wrong. I don’t conclude we were wrong in any of the politics we advocated. What I conclude is that we began determined not...

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