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Why does the Labour Party not support Brexit?

285 replies

FlatulentStarfish · 12/05/2016 22:57

Forgive me, I am not brilliantly knowledgeable about politics. But what I can't understand is why are the Labour Party not supporting Brexit? I always understood that Labour supported the British poor and working classes. Surely these are the very people who are being most hurt by remaining in the EU. One newspaper described the referendum as a battle between the Haves and the Have Nots. Why are Labour abandoning their people? The old Labour politicians such as Tony Benn were always anti EU.

OP posts:
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claig · 13/05/2016 00:12

Because Labour are just Establishment.

'Why are Labour abandoning their people? '

They are not. They are right behind the Oxbridge metropolitan elite as always.

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SocialDisaster · 13/05/2016 00:20

I still don't understand why and I am a labour member. There is a labour leave team too. I am voting to leave due to not being happy about EU democracy and fears of who could be a potential future leader. The EU seems to be heading more right wing. I would also like us to make more of our own laws.

I think labour keeping a low profile so far has been wise.

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MrsMushrooms · 13/05/2016 00:31

The EU started off as a trade deal and the Tories liked it but Labour opposed. In the early 90s, the EU started introducing social policies (paid holiday, maternity leave, max working hours, etc.) which were good for people and bad for business. That's when Labour started liking the EU more and the Tories liked it less. The Tories wouldn't sign up to these policies in 1992, but when Labour got in in 1997 they did sign up to them and have been broadly in favour ever since.

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Winterbiscuit · 13/05/2016 02:45

I've been wondering this too. People on lower incomes and the working class are the most likely to want to leave the EU. So why aren't Labour representing them? Or who else will? It's almost as though there are two Labour parties, one wanting to represent the real working class and those on low incomes, and another which is full of establishment champagne socialists who'll vote to remain and is unfortunately stronger at the moment.

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ThroughThickAndThin01 · 13/05/2016 02:48

I don't know why it's their official line.

Corbyn has always been euro sceptic, so I'm sure his and a lot of other Labour MPs 'X' will actually go in the Leave box.

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FastWindow · 13/05/2016 02:48

Because Brexit serves no British. Labour or otherwise. I have no idea why Boris is behind Brexit. Is it a reverse on his part? Is he an MNer?

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ThroughThickAndThin01 · 13/05/2016 02:50

Serves no British what?

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lovelyandnormal · 13/05/2016 02:53

Winter, I think most people you describe in the former 'party' are actually UKIPs core voters now.

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FastWindow · 13/05/2016 03:05

through people. British people.

Sixty years ago the British people got through by collaboration with the majority of what was Europe defined then. Why turn our backs now? Seems petty. And parochial.

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Mistigri · 13/05/2016 06:07

Like the Tories, Labour has its Eurosceptic wing, though it's much smaller and has very different motivations.

I don't think that's surprising really. All serious economists agree that leaving would create an economic shock. We know that the people at the bottom of the pile are the most at risk in economic downturns - if the last eight years since the financial crisis have taught us anything, it is that we are not "all in this together". If you are committed to not making poor people poorer, then remain is a no-brainer.

There is also, I think, a new sense among former "mild Eurosceptics" (of the Corbyn variety) that leaving the EU would put British workers at risk of the removal of what few protections they have. I know quite a few 50-something, leftwing, former mild eurosceptics who will be voting remain on this basis.

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ProfessorPreciseaBug · 13/05/2016 07:03

Mrs Mushrooms,
The EU was never a trade deal. It was and has always been a political project to create a super supranational state that has a single government.

This is not me rabbiting on, it is the assessment of the Foreign Commonwealth Office back in 1971. Google 30/1048 1971, (the reference number of the briefing paper prepared by the FCO in 1971).

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Brokenbiscuit · 13/05/2016 07:23

People on lower incomes and the working class are the most likely to want to leave the EU. So why aren't Labour representing them?

People on lower incomes might want to leave the EU but that doesn't necessarily mean that their lives would be better if we did leave. Possibly quite the contrary.

Many of us believe that leaving the EU would be an economic disaster for this country, and that the poor would probably be the hardest hit by this.

I don't think it's the job of any political party simply to reflect the views of voters. Rather, it's their job to make the case for whatever they genuinely think is best and hope that the voters will be persuaded.

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Limer · 13/05/2016 07:45

The Labour Party are ignoring their core voters at their peril. It's their core voters whose wages are stagnant, rents are increasing and are feeling the pressure on public services. The traditional working classes are being sacrificed to the dream of the EU superstate.

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lovelyandnormal · 13/05/2016 07:46

There's a video doing the rounds on Facebook saying just that.

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GetAHaircutCarl · 13/05/2016 07:49

JC has always been vocally anti-Europe. Until now Confused.

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Samcro · 13/05/2016 07:50

i don't understand why people think WC and low income people will want to leave.
surely we would be worse of leaving and having the tories in sole charge

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lovelyandnormal · 13/05/2016 07:52

Samcro, because if you dislike the Tories, you have the option of using your vote to remove them from power in four years. We do not have that option for those in power in the EU.

Blair's Labour really did crap all over the working poor, and don't anyone kid themselves they don't know it.

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Homeriliad · 13/05/2016 07:52

Limer, leaving the EU will not reduce immigration by any noticeable amount. Any post Brexit trade deal with the EU would require us to keep free movement of EU citizens - just ask Norway and Switzerland!

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claig · 13/05/2016 07:54

Samcro, if Corbyn joined the Leave camp and Establishment Etonian Cameron was defeated, he would be out on his ear and Corbyn would be a national hero and would opossibly win the election. If the Etblishment lose this referendum, they will be discredited and everything in politics will change.

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Limer · 13/05/2016 07:57

Homeriliad, the EU is not going to stay the same. It's in a state of crisis already, we're better out than in. The EU is getting poorer and needs our trade. Capitalism always wins anyway.

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lovelyandnormal · 13/05/2016 07:58

Why doesn't he then, claig? (genuine question)

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claig · 13/05/2016 07:58

'Any post Brexit trade deal with the EU would require us to keep free movement of EU citizens - just ask Norway and Switzerland!'

We are not Norway and Switzerland, we are the fifth largest economy in the world. We would be able to get our way because the EU would be on the verge of collapse if we win anyway because other countries will soon challenge their elites and demand their own referendums and then the whole house of cards will collapse and establishments all across Europe will be swept from power as they all become discredited.

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claig · 13/05/2016 08:00

'Why doesn't he then, claig? (genuine question)'

Because he is weak and is under enormous pressure from the Establishment and their stooges in his own party who are threatening to split his party and challenge his leadership. The stooges will rebel against him and he doesn't have the courage to face them doan and sack them. It is just lie the way he caved in over the Syria vote when the stooges in his party rebelled against his preferred position. He is very weak and has not got the courage to challenge the Establishment and its stooges.

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lovelyandnormal · 13/05/2016 08:02

Thank you; disappointing as I don't agree with him on many occasions but thought he was principled.

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claig · 13/05/2016 08:06

He is principled, he is a good man in general, but he has shown that he doesn't have the backbone to take the stooges on. It is sad, but the pressure on him is enormous.

That is why, Gove, for example, has shown that he has tremendous courage and principle to challenge his mates like Establishment Cameron and the whole infrastructure of the Establishment in putting the British people first.

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