Let me see if I’ve
got this right.
If the
government are obliged (as seems to be likely, although we should not pre-judge
the outcome of today’s Supreme Court hearing) to present a Bill to parliament
to trigger Article 50, then Labour will seek to amend that Bill to constrain
the form of Brexit. Without their
amendment, they claim that Brexit will lead to a drop in wages, public spending
and living standards. But if their
amendment fails, they will not oppose either Brexit or the Bill itself, even if
it does lead to a drop in wages, public spending and living standards. This is called defending ordinary working
people from the Tories.
The reason that
they can’t oppose either Brexit or the Bill is that the majority of the
electorate voted to leave. But,
actually, 48% voted to stay; with Labour now supporting the process of
triggering Article 50, the voices of those 48% are represented only by the
smaller (in UK terms) parties, who between them account for only around 10-12%
of the seats in parliament. Labour, as the
main opposition party does not see it as its job to speak for the main body of
opposition amongst the electorate, even if most of its MPs agree with that 48%.
The reason for
that seems to be that the majority of the electorate in Labour constituencies
voted to leave, even though all the evidence shows that the majority of those
who actually voted for the Labour MPs themselves voted to remain; the majority
for leave came from those who voted for their opponents.
So, to sum up:
Labour MPs feel that it is their duty to speak up for those who voted against
them and against the majority of those who voted for them, even if they believe
that the outcome of that will be a drop in wages, public spending and living
standards which will disproportionately impact on those who actually did vote
for them.
Strange
business, this politics.
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1 comment:
Since Labour's frontbench are in no position to whip their colleagues in practice each Labour MP will make her/his decision.
HM's loyal opposition frontbench has the responsibility under Commons conventions of formulating the 'reasoned amendment' that the Speaker will designate at 3rd Reading. This may well be the best chance to draw together all the nationalist parties, DUP and Lib Dems so that with a couple of dozen Tory absentions the Bill can be defeated. Given the Commons math I suspect the crafting of such an amendment would defeat even a united and determined opposition frontbench let alone this one - but they are obliged to make a token effort.
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