The United Kingdom opposition Labour Party could unite with rebels in Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party as a way to force her to give lawmakers a vote on the final deal to leave the European Union, the party’s Brexit spokesman Keir Starmer wrote in The Sunday Times.
Starmer demanded May accept six changes to the so-called repeal bill, including giving parliament the final say on whether to approve it and adding a two-year implementation period following Brexit during which Britain would stay in the single market and customs union. Writing in the Times online comment section “Red Box,” he vowed to “work with all sides” unless ministers adopt his suggested changes and end the paralysis over the bill.
With May in charge of a minority government that needs the votes of the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland to advance legislation, she is vulnerable to opposition to the bill. Both Conservative and opposition members in Parliament have already proposed hundreds of amendments, including from May’s former cabinet colleague Dominic Grieve to require a formal vote to enact Brexit.
The government faces the prospect of defeat from its own MPs on at least 13 amendments, Starmer said, causing action on the bill to be paused. Starmer also called for the bill to “respect the devolution settlement” and to entrench workers and human rights, dismissing it as “not fit for purpose” in its current form. The Scottish and Welsh governments have already said they will not support the legislation, with Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Welsh counterpart Carwyn Jones releasing a joint statement in July calling it a “naked power grab.”
Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show last Sunday, shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry echoed Starmer’s stance, saying that a no-deal Brexit “is a serious threat to Britain” and that the Labour Party would stop it. She also said that Britain needs to be part of the customs union. Labour’s intervention comes after last week’s European Union summit saw both sides turning slightly more positive on the progress of the Brexit talks and the EU agreeing to begin internal discussions on trade. May is set to update parliament on the progress of the talks on Monday, and is expected to say that, although the negotiations are “deeply technical,” the people at the heart of them remain her “first priority.”
Image credits: Bloomberg