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| Remain-supporting Labour MPs say Jeremy Corbyn's proposed amendment would scupper a bid initiated in the House of Lords to keep the UK in the European Economic Area |
Labour MPs have accused Jeremy Corbyn of “bailing out” Theresa May over Brexit as they prepared to rebel in a bid to keep the UK in the EU single market.
Mr Corbyn has rejected calls for Britain to have a Norway-style
relationship with Brussels after Brexit which would see the UK stay
inside the European Economic Area (EEA).
On Tuesday he unveiled his alternative
proposal which would call on the Government to make maintaining “full
access” to the EU’s “internal market” a Brexit negotiating objective.
But Remain-supporting Labour MPs have reacted with fury to Mr
Corbyn’s proposed amendment to the Government’s flagship Brexit
legislation because they believe it will scupper a bid initiated in the
House of Lords to keep the UK in the EEA.
Peers successfully amended the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill to
include a commitment to staying in the EEA and a House of Commons
showdown has been set for June 12 when ministers will seek to overturn
the amendment with Labour MPs expected to be ordered to abstain.
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But many
have signalled their intention to defy Mr Corbyn to vote in favour of
staying in the single market as they criticised the Labour leader’s
“lesser alternative” proposal.
They
believe Tory rebels who may be considering voting to keep the UK in the
single market are much more likely to back the cross-party Lords’
amendment than the Labour alternative set out by Mr Corbyn and Sir Keir
Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary.
Chris Leslie, the former shadow chancellor, said: "We should not be
in the business of bailing out Theresa May when she's facing rebellion
on the single market."
He added: “While this is getting close to EEA Single Market, the Conservative rebel MPs are unlikely to support Labour frontbench in any way.
“In which case we need to put country first and vote together on
Lords EEA amendment. To miss an opportunity to win on this would be
unforgivable.”
Neil Coyle, the Labour MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark, said:
"Many of us will be supporting the EEA amendment from Lords. Not any
lesser alternative.
“One chance to win next week. We must take it.”
Ben
Bradshaw, a Labour former Cabinet minister, said Tory MPs would not vote
for a Labour frontbench amendment and if the party was "serious" about
avoiding a hard Brexit "we must vote for the existing backbench
cross-party Lords amendment".
Chuka Umunna - a supporter of the pro-EU Open Britain campaign -
said: "All the way through the passage of this Bill, the only amendments
which have commanded support on both sides of the House and passed are
cross-party backbench ones.
"So, if we are serious about 'protecting full access to the internal
market of the EU' and ensuring 'no new impediments to trade', logic
dictates Labour MPs should be whipped to support the cross-party EEA amendment sent to us by the House of Lords."
Sir Keir said Labour could not support the EEA amendment because the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) was split on the issue.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The difficulty with that, and
I think everybody recognises this, is that there are very strong and
very different views across the PLP on that particular amendment so
whilst there is unity on all of the others and we will be all voting
together, on that amendment there are very divided views.”
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| Sir Keir Starmer: 'I wish I could report that we had complete unity on all amendments but we are not in that position' |
He said
that critics of the party leadership's approach “know that this
amendment does not command that (cross-party) support in their own
party”.
He added: “I wish I could report that we had complete unity on all amendments but we are not in that position.”
Meanwhile, Sir Keir said Labour would not support the Government’s
final Brexit deal unless the party’s six Brexit tests were met.
He said: “At the moment it is hard to see how the Government would
satisfy those tests, we will faithfully apply them, but let me be
absolutely crystal clear: If those tests are not met we will be voting
against and we are not going to let the Government get away with vague
non-answers.”
The
Tories have accused Labour of having “shattered their promise to respect
the referendum result” because the party’s amendment would mean
“accepting free movement and continuing to follow EU rules with
absolutely no say in them”.
