Whole article. Luckily in plenty of time to avoid voting Labour ....
www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/apr/28/labour-hints-at-backing-brexit-deal-without-promise-of-referendum
theguardian.com
Labour hints at backing Brexit deal without promise of referendum
Heather Stewart
6-7 minutes
Labour is prepared to sign up to a Brexit deal with the government without the promise of a referendum attached if cross-party talks make significant progress in the coming days, one of the party’s negotiators has said.
Rebecca Long-Bailey, the shadow business secretary, has been attending the negotiations alongside the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, and the shadow Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer.
Many at Westminster believe the talks, convened by Theresa May after her deal was rejected three times and due to resume this week, are destined to fail.
But Long-Bailey insisted negotiations had been productive and “gone into a lot of detail”; and hinted that the government was signalling a willingness to compromise on some issues, including workers’ rights.
“There has been movement in specific areas – we’ve had fantastic discussions on workers’ rights, for example, and the government seems quite amenable to moving towards what I’ve been asking for. We’re waiting at the moment to see if that turns into pens on paper,” she told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge.
Asked if a second Brexit referendum was a “red line” for Labour in the talks, Long-Bailey said: “I wouldn’t couch it in terms of a second referendum; but our party policy has always been that firstly we want to get a Brexit deal that puts our economy and living standards first and protects our environmental protections, workplace protections, health and safety standards.”
“We want a customs union arrangement in order to keep our borders open, so that our manufacturing industry isn’t detrimentally affected, and we keep the movement of goods flowing as freely as possible. And we want a strong single market relationship.”
She added: “If we don’t get a deal that satisfies those objectives – if it’s a damaging deal, a damaging Tory Brexit deal, or there’s a risk of us moving towards a no deal – in that circumstance, we’ve said that all options should be on the table, and that includes campaigning for a public vote.”
Her careful recital of the party’s conference motion will infuriate MPs and activists pushing for Labour to make a referendum a central part of its policy platform for next month’s European parliament elections.
The manifesto for the European elections, which the government had hoped to cancel if it struck a deal swiftly enough, is due to be discussed at a meeting of Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) on Tuesday.
The shadow cabinet is also expected to discuss the issue – and remains divided between advocates of a referendum, including Starmer and Emily Thornberry, and those who believe Labour should also try to appeal to disillusioned Conservative voters, by holding out the prospect of its own form of Brexit.
Starmer said in the House of Commons earlier this month, when Labour backed a motion for a “confirmatory” vote, that “at this late stage it is clear that any Brexit deal agreed in this parliament will need further democratic approval”.
Almost 90 MPs and MEPs wrote to Jeremy Corbyn in advance of the NEC meeting, urging him to ensure that a confirmatory vote is part of the package Labour offers to voters – and a row broke out last week over the text of a campaign leaflet that made no mention of a referendum.
“Labour has already, rightly, backed a confirmatory public vote. The overwhelming majority of our members and voters support this, and it is the democratically established policy of the party,” the letter said. “Our members need to feel supported on doorsteps by a clear manifesto that marks us out as the only viable alternative to Nigel Farage’s Brexit party.”
Discussing progress in the cross-party talks, Long-Bailey hinted that Labour was prepared to shift its ground if it helped to secure a consensus, saying: “We’re not being hugely prescriptive on the minute details of specific elements, because we are willing to be compromising, we are willing to be flexible.”
She was appearing as Labour prepared to press in parliament on Wednesday for the government to declare an “emergency” on climate change.
“It’s quite dramatic, making this assertion on Wednesday, declaring a national emergency in relation to climate and environment – but it’s necessary, because everybody from the Met Office to Nasa, to the intergovernmental panel on climate change, has stated that if we don’t take radical action across the world, not just here in the UK, we’re not going to be able to reverse the damaging effects of climate change,” she said.
“We’ve got to bring our emissions down by 45% compared with 2010 levels by 2030, and reach net-zero, and that requires a national emergency: a mission, if you like.”
Labour’s elections coordinator, Andrew Gwynne, said he expected the party’s governing body, the NEC, to “endorse Labour’s policy that came out of the conference”, but stressed it was up to MPs, not the MEPs being chosen next month, whether there would be a referendum.
“You know, at the end of the day, that’s domestic policy. It is for parliament to decide whether or not a Brexit deal should be put to a confirmatory public vote,” he said.
Meanwhile, the former Brexit minister Steve Baker has claimed any deal that is voted through would cause the government to “collapse” by losing the support of the DUP.
Baker, the deputy chairman of the European Research Group of Eurosceptic backbenchers, told the Sunday Telegraph: “Any [potential] leader who continues to vote for this deal, who accepts it being put through on Labour votes to deliver Brexit in name only, will need to explain how they are going to achieve a confidence and supply arrangement to prop up their government.
“You will find yourself leading a government which collapses if you ram this deal through over the heads of the DUP. I just cannot see how it would be otherwise.”
He added: “This is not just about delivering Brexit, it’s about keeping Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell away from the levers of power.”