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Brexit: May wants cross-party talks to conclude before end of next week, government sources suggest – live news
Brexit: Labour restates 2nd referendum 'option' policy despite pressure to shift from party remainers – live news
(about 2 hours later)
Attendees at Labour’s national executive committee do seem to have regained access to their phones, because Tom Watson has posted a tweet, responding to a joke my colleague Heather Stewart made about this:
Labour’s ruling national executive committee has agreed that its manifesto for the European elections will back a second Brexit referendum – but only in specific circumstances.
Labour's NEC meeting appears to have run past four hours in a major row over Brexit https://t.co/FWh9FbeHPD pic.twitter.com/iTSpsKaV3S
Theresa May has set a one-week deadline for cross-party Brexit talks to make progress or be brought “towards a conclusion”, with a crunch meeting likely to be scheduled with key players early next week.
It’s the fact that Louise Haigh likes this tweet that hurts the most.
Donald Trump is unlikely to address parliament when he visits the UK next month over fears that the Commons Speaker’s opposition to the idea could cause an embarrassing row.
The joke is inspired by the fact that the Mirror has illustrated its article with an old picture of Watson, taken before his remarkably successful recent diet.
A fresh row has broken out over Labour’s complaints process after Anas Sarwar, a former Scottish deputy leader, claimed he was barred from speaking about alleged Islamophobia against him.
At the Change UK rally at lunchtime, Chuka Umunna, the former Labour MP, urged Labour members to vote for his new party because that might encourage Jeremy Corbyn to endorse remain. Accusing Labour of prevarication over Brexit, he said:
Change UK has called on Labour supporters to “lend us your vote” in order to put pressure on the Labour leadership to fully support a second Brexit referendum.
Don’t endorse that prevarication. Vote for Change UK.
Extinction Rebellion activists have met leading politicians including the environment secretary, Michael Gove, and the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, in an attempt to persuade the UK government to declare a “climate emergency”. After the meeting with Gove, Clare Farrell, one of the XR activists who attended, released a statement saying:
Or at the very least, if you haven’t made up your mind what you will do at the next general election, lend us your vote in these European elections.
It was less shit than I thought it would be, but only mildly. I was surprised to hear a radical reflection on our economic paradigm from Michael Gove when he talked about how our model is extractive and destructive - and that we need to move to a circular model. And that similarly a debt based economy doesn’t do right by young people, that it is creating a huge debt for them and that it has to change.
The better we do, the more likely you are to see the Labour leadership adopt a people’s vote and remain position.
Unfortunately what failed to emerge was an actual way forward. I’d like to remind him that we have a 1 percent chance of hitting 1.5 degrees - that urgency wasn’t in the room.
But Change UK clearly did not coordinate their message very effectively because Mike Gapes, the party’s foreign affairs spokesman and another former Labour MP, said his old party would never back remain. He explained:
That’s all from me for today.
Jeremy Corbyn and those he has appointed around him like [strategy and communications director Seumas Milne have never wanted to stop Brexit.
Thanks for the comments.
Corbyn whipped Labour MPs to vote for article 50, he whipped Labour MPs not to support a people’s vote.
Change UK has also criticised Labour’s stance. This is from its foreign affairs spokesman, the former Labour MP Mike Gapes.
Whatever contortions and forms of words they come up with today, it is clear that large, influential parts of the Labour leadership will not oppose Brexit.
Whatever contortions or forms of words Labour may come up with today, it is clear that large, influential parts of the leadership will not oppose Brexit.
From my colleague Heather Stewart
Every single one of our 70 Change UK candidates supports a people’s vote. Every single one of our Change UK candidates are enthusiastic supporters of the UK remaining in the EU. It’s time to change our country and end the divisions and damage of this Brexit disaster.
Michael Gove will respond to Jeremy Corbyn in tomorrow's Opposition Day debate on a climate change national emergency, I understand. Nice opportunity to show he could take the fight to Labour on issues other than Brexit...?
The People’s Vote campaign has released a statement from the Labour MP Bridget Phillipson, one of its supporters, describing the Labour NEC decision as “the bare minimum” required. She explained:
John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, has said that Jeremy Hunt’s comment this morning about Tory MPs not accepting a customs union (see 9.21am) makes it harder for Labour to have confidence in the cross-party talks process.
Today Labour has done the bare minimum needed and I can only hope it will be enough to secure the support of all those millions of our voters demanding the final say on Brexit.
This is hardly a helpful or constructive intervention whilst we are in the middle of cross party talks to protect our economy & does not inspire confidence that if a deal is agreed it would be successfully entrenched and last any longer than the next Tory leadership election. https://t.co/BHspSQQx0q
There is no deal on the table other than the one negotiated by the government and there is no majority for it in parliament without a confirmatory referendum to show there is a majority for it the country too.
It is hard to know how much to read into this, but it is the sort of argument that you would expect one side to start making if they were looking for an excuse to wind up cross-party talks.
The decision of the NEC today reaffirms conference policy and means Labour will have little choice except to back a new public vote on the most likely outcome of this vexed process.
With the Labour party due to issue a new statement about its position on Brexit and a second referendum, it is worth summarising how this policy has evolved over the last two years.
That’s because more and more of us are recognising it would be unfair to force this deal on the British people now that we know so much more about Brexit.
This is not as straightforward as it sounds. It is not unusual for political parties to resort to fudge when articulating policy so as to ensure that, on issues where opinion is divided, people can unite behind a compromise. A compromise does not have to be a fudge, but it does get fudgy if it involves key issues being left unresolved.
But the manifesto’s mealy-mouthed wording still maintains the fiction that there is a deal out there that can satisfy all the promises made three years ago, avoid real costs to jobs and living standards, or end the endless crisis around Brexit.
An extreme version of this is “constructive ambiguity” (a term used by the Blairites to describe some of the ploys required during the Northern Ireland peace process, but a phrase originally attributed to Henry Kissinger). Labour’s second referendum policy has, at times, been a textbook example of this, although more recently it has started to shift down the ambiguity/clarity axis towards something more specific.
This means Labour risks demoralising activists, depressing turnout among supporters and decreasing the share of the vote for candidates who - like the overwhelming majority of our party - are fighting for a people’s vote on any Brexit deal.
Here are the key three phases the policy has been through.
Sarah Boyack, the former Scottish government minister, is to return to Holyrood to take up the seat left vacant after Kezia Dugdale resigned on Monday.
1) From the referendum until the 2017 election and beyond: Accepting the result
Currently head of public affairs at the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations and a Labour moderate, Boyack had previously been a transport minister who introduced free bus travel for the over 60s. She lost her seat at the 2016 Holyrood elections, after 17 years as an MSP.
Jeremy Corbyn made it clear as soon as the referendum result was announced that Labour would accept it (which is partly why he made the much-criticised comment the morning after calling for article 50 to be triggered) and this was the party’s position in its 2017 manifesto (pdf). “Labour accepts the referendum result and a Labour government will put the national interest first,” the manifesto said. The only vague nudge in the direction of a second referendum was a call for parliament to get “a truly meaningful vote on the final Brexit deal”.
Under the Scottish parliament’s additional member system, she inherits Dugdale’s seat as the next available Labour candidate on the Lothian region list; her return helps Labour maintain its high gender balance at Holyrood.
2) Labour conference 2018: “All options on the table, including a public vote”
Boyack said she had enjoyed her two year stint at the SFHA but, in a reference to her long-standing involvement in environment campaigning in the labour movement, said:
At the Labour conference in Liverpool the party overwhelmingly backed a long composite motion on Brexit agreed at an evening meeting where delegates representing different factions from the party contested the text for hours. The full motion is here, but this is the key paragraph.
However, there is unfinished business for me. In the last three years the case for concerted action on climate change and the need to redouble our efforts to tackle poverty has accelerated. In Edinburgh, the affordable, accessible housing people need has become harder and harder to secure. And then there’s the uncertainty and division caused by Brexit.
If we cannot get a general election Labour must support all options remaining on the table, including campaigning for a public vote. If the government is confident in negotiating a deal that working people, our economy and communities will benefit from they should not be afraid to put that deal to the public.
The next potential candidate for Dugdale’s vacant seat was Lesley Hinds, a veteran Labour councillor in Edinburgh who retired at the last local government election
For supporters of a second referendum, this was an important advance; Labour was now accepting a public vote (ie, a referendum) as an option.
And Mary Honeyball, who is standing down as a Labour MEP, thinks the NEC position does not go far enough.
But for opponents of a second referendum, nothing of substance had been conceded. The motion did not even mention a referendum (at one point “public vote” was taken in this debate to include a possible general election, although in the context of the motion it means referendum, because it refers to what might happen if a general election does not happen). And keeping “all options on the table” effectively means not having any actual policy at all - although the phrase had the advantage of sounding plausible when deployed in interviews.
Looks like Labour NEC has agreed business as usual. Not good enough. Labour needs strong #Remain policy and to campaign for #PeoplesVote in order not to lose votes to strong #Remain parties. NEC didn’t even say they support #Remain on the ballot paper @Labour4EU @EuroLabour
The full extent of the ambiguity in play became apparent at the conference when different Labour figures gave different versions of what a “public vote” might involve. Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, received wild applause during his speech when he ad-libbed a line not cleared by Corbyn’s office saying: “Nobody is ruling out remain as an option.”
But Gloria De Piero, one of the Labour MPs who is sceptical about a second referendum, and insistent on the importance of the referendum result being honoured, has also welcomed the NEC’s decision.
But that was not true. Two days earlier Len McCluskey, the Unite general secretary, said that if there were to be a second referendum, remain should not be an option. After conference some Corbynites occasionally argued that this would be a plausible reading of the “public vote” pledge, but the Starmer interpretation was more widely accepted.
Labour's manifesto for the European Parliament will not contain a pledge to hold a second Brexit referendum.The party's ruling national executive committee agreed that another nationwide poll should only be "an option" if it cannot force a general election.
3) Early 2019: Qualified support for second referendum
Rather than quibbling, pro-European Labour MPs who support a second referendum have welcomed the party’s decision today.
Since January there have been more than a dozen Commons votes on either Theresa May’s deal, or on motions relating to the Brexit process. As these debates have progressed, Labour has firmed up its support for a second referendum, although with considerable qualifications.
Glad the NEC has made the right call and confirmed that a public vote will be in our manifesto for the European elections. We’re a Party for remain and it’s right that everyone - leavers and remainers - should be given the #finalsay on our Brexit future.
Broadly the party has arrived at a position where it backs a second referendum, but only to avoid a “damaging” Tory Brexit or no-deal, although sometimes it has voted for motions that go beyond this.
Great news that @uklabour NEC backing conference policy on #FinalSay public vote on #Brexit - will be clearly stated for first time in a manifesto #EuropeanElections @LabPeoplesVote - time to get out and back out excellent @WelshLabour @UKLabour MEP candidates!
The first big shift came on 29 January when Labour tabled a motion saying the government should allow MPs to vote on Brexit options, and that those options should include “legislating to hold a public vote on a deal or a proposition that has commanded the support of the majority of the House of Commons.” The party did not specifically say it would support such a public vote, although this was implied.
Glad that Labour NEC has agreed confirmatory vote, in line with party policy, for our European election manifesto. will be. We’re a Party for remain and it’s right that everyone - leavers and remainers - should be given the #finalsay on our Brexit future.
A further shift came in February when the party said, if MPs voted down Labour’s Brexit plan, the party would default to backing a second referendum. On 27 February Labour’s plan was rejected by MPs, and Corbyn then responded by saying:
So glad to hear that our #NEC confirms the view of majority of our @UKLabour members, MPs and MEPs and our conference policy and keeps a #FinalSay in our #EUelections2019 manifesto.
I’m pleased that @uklabour NEC backing conference policy on #FinalSay public vote on #Brexit - will be clearly stated in the manifesto for the #EuropeanElections. Its clear the Government isn’t moving so I hope the talks conclude quickly so we can have another vote on #KyleWilson
Glad to see our Labour NEC has backed a Public Vote supporting our Conference Policy @peoplesvote_hq @itvnews
Even though Wes Streeting and Meg Hillier say Labour is the party for remain, the party’s actual statement says Labour “represents both people who supported leave and remain”. (See 5pm.)
This is from Adam Price, leader of Plaid Cymru.
So it’s official: the Labour leadership has ignored all those who marched for a People’s Vote and the vast majority of Labour members. Who’d have thought Jeremy Corbyn would have turned out to be the new Tony Blair. https://t.co/kJfO1Sa7QW
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, claims the Labour statement (see 5pm) shows Labour is a pro-Brexit party.
Confirmation, if it was needed, that Labour is a Brexit supporting party. Problem is a Labour Brexit, just like a Tory Brexit, will hurt Scotland. So if you want to keep Scotland in Europe, and make sure that our voice is heard, vote @theSNP on 23 May. https://t.co/NaHPBN5dM9
This is from Ben Bradshaw, the Labour former cabinet minister and one of the party’s leading pro-Europeans. He thinks the party will end up having to back a second referendum because the alternatives will fall away.
1. The Government won’t agree to an “alternative Brexit” & Labour MPs won’t vote for one that isn’t conditional on a #FinalSay public vote, so it won’t happen 2. There won’t be an election cos Tory MPs won’t vote for one. 3. #peoplesvote only thing left. Bingo! https://t.co/OVUXMqQYFG
Labour’s national executive committee has agreed what the party will say about a second referendum in its manifesto for the European elections. A party spokesperson said:
Labour’s European elections manifesto was agreed at the NEC today and it will be published soon.
Labour is the only party which represents both people who supported leave and remain. We are working to bring the country together after the chaos and crisis created by the Tories.
The NEC meeting was described as respectful, constructive and comradely. Afterwards a source said:
The NEC agreed the manifesto which will be fully in line with Labour’s existing policy; to support Labour’s alternative plan, and if we can’t get the necessary changes to the government’s deal, or a general election, to back the option of a public vote.
And here is what this means.
Labour pro-Europeans, led by the deputy leader Tom Watson, have failed in their bid to get the party to firm up its commitment to a second referendum on Brexit. The party’s national executive committee has rejected a call for the party to commit to putting any Brexit deal to a second referendum.
Labour has largely reaffirmed the policy agreed at last year’s conference, saying that it is committed to “the option of a public vote” if it cannot pass its own Brexit deal, or trigger a general election. But, arguably, this represents a retreat from positions the party has adopted earlier this year. (See 2.18pm for a full analysis.) Twice the party ordered its MPs to vote for a motion saying any Brexit deal passed this parliament should be subject to a confirmatory vote (although at the time it also said it did not fully agree with this position). And on 27 February, after Labour’s plan was defeated in the Commons, Corbyn released a statement saying:
We will back a public vote in order to prevent a damaging Tory Brexit or a disastrous no deal outcome.
We will back a public vote in order to prevent a damaging Tory Brexit or a disastrous no deal outcome.
Then, at the end of March, came the first of two indicative votes debates that saw MPs voting on motions tabled by Dame Margaret Beckett and Peter Kyle saying any Brexit deal passed during this parliament should be subject to a confirmatory referendum. The motions were identical, and they said:
We will also continue to push for the other available options to prevent those outcomes, including a close economic relationship based on our credible alternative plan or a general election.
That this House will not allow in this parliament the implementation and ratification of any withdrawal agreement and any framework for the future relationship unless and until they have been approved by the people of the United Kingdom in a confirmatory public vote.
This implies the party would definitely support a second referendum in the event of no-deal or a “damaging Tory Brexit”. Backing the “option of a public vote” makes this more conditional because if this is just an option, there is no absolute commitment to implementing it.
Labour whipped its MPs to support them both. But, before the first vote, Corbyn sent a letter to MPs saying the party was supporting the motion even though it did not fully support it. He said:
Labour says it is party for people who both supported leave and remain.
Our conference agreed that if we cannot get a general election we would support all options remaining on the table, including a public vote. Labour is supporting the Beckett-Kyle-Wilson amendment (even where it can be read as going beyond our policy) to keep the option of a public vote on the table in order to stop a disastrous no deal or May’s unacceptable deal.
The Commons has risen for the day. These are from HuffPost’s Paul Waugh.
Labour’s priority is to deliver our credible Brexit plan which respects our commitment to accept the result of the referendum. Today we are are supporting all options that enable us to prevent a damaging Tory Brexit or no-deal being forced on the country.
Amazing. Commons has just risen. At 4.19pm on a Tuesday. pic.twitter.com/nYUGQ6CVm2
Today’s NEC meeting is expected to agree a new version of this.
It's not as if there's a huge unresolved national policy issue or anything..
But, as Tom Watson’s intervention earlier made clear, Corbyn is under pressure to expand the commitment. The main demand is for the party to commit to putting any Brexit deal to a referendum, not just a “damaging” Tory one, or no-deal. But implicit in this is also a demand for the party to agree that, even after a general election, it would remain committed to a second referendum. The Beckett/Kyle amendment just covers “this parliament”, ie before a general election.
And this is from the Sun’s Tom Newton Dunn.
Extinction Rebellion has released a statement following its meeting with John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, this morning. Sue Hayman, the shadow environment secretary, was also there, and the XR team also briefly met Jeremy Corbyn. Tomorrow Labour is using one of its opposition days to call for climate change to be declared a national emergency.
Furthermore; the PM has not made any public comment on a national stage (speech, press conference or Commons) about anything now for 20 days. PMQs and Liaison Committee tomorrow will stop the run of silence just before it hits 3 weeks. https://t.co/xWven6AGXH
In it statement XR said:
Crucially, [the Labour politicians] acknowledged the failure of previous Labour party policies to meeting the challenges we face, and have committed to the following:
John McDonnell will request that Extinction Rebellion present its case to the entire shadow cabinet on the climate and ecological emergency. He has also committed to presentations from us to the shadow environment committee and the shadow Treasury team.
However, John McDonnell did not commit to changing the proposed date in the Labour party motion which currently aims to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, although he said will consider a new target of 2030. We also raised this with Jeremy Corbyn ahead of the debate tomorrow in the House of Commons.
We’re glad that John McDonnell listened to the urgency of our demands but we need our politicians to be more ambitious. Our children’s future is on the line. The international rebellion will continue until politicians prove they are willing to act on all three of our demands.
We wait to see if the Labour party will act with the courage and determination needed in this moment.
The Conservatives are heading for fourth place in the European elections in London, a poll for the Evening Standard suggests. In their story Joe Murphy and Nicholas Cecil report:
A shock YouGov poll found Theresa May’s party limping on just 11% in the capital — half of the 22% share they enjoyed in 2014 when they came a respectable second.
Embarrassingly, they are six points behind Change UK, which is on 17% despite only being launched as a party a few weeks ago. And Mr Farage’s newly formed anti-EU party is further ahead on 19.
A drubbing on that scale would increase the likelihood that Tories will try to oust Mrs May after the results of the election on May 23 ...
Labour is in first place in London, but its 28% share is drastically down from the 36.6% they took in 2014.
The prime minister’s spokesman gave Downing Street’s latest assessment of progress in the cross-party Brexit talks at today’s morning lobby briefing. He said:
Cabinet received an update on the Brexit talks with the opposition, including the negotiations last night, which were serious and constructive. Further talks will now be scheduled in order to bring the process toward a conclusion.
Cabinet also discussed the need to secure safe passage for the withdrawal agreement bill, or WAB, as soon as possible, in order to deliver upon the result of the referendum.
David Lidington gave an update on the talks; while the chief whip, Julian Smith, talked about the prospects for the WAB.
Several members of the cabinet are known to be sceptical about the value of discussions with Labour, and government sources are now making clear that they will make a judgement by the middle of next week about whether the process is worth continuing with.
Any cross-party deal would be aimed at securing a majority for the WAB. If that fails, alternatives include seeking agreement on some parliamentary process that could yield a decisive outcome - unlike the two rounds of indicative votes already held.
This is from my colleague Heather Stewart, who has just come out of the Downing Street lobby briefing.
Brexit mood music watch: last night’s talks were “serious and constructive,” says Theresa May’s spox - but government sources say Cabinet is clear the process needs to reach a conclusion, one way or another, within the next week or so.
Jeremy Corbyn is at the meeting of Labour’s NEC. But, according to the Press Association, he did not enter the building through the main entrance where media and demonstrators had gathered, and so he was not photographed going in.
Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, renewed his call for the party to back a referendum on any Brexit deal as he arrived at the Labour national executive committee meeting. He said:
In the last few days most of my colleagues on the NEC have been inundated with thousands of emails from Labour members who are saying that Labour voters recognise the parliamentary failure and they think that the only way to break this impasse is a people’s vote on any deal that parliament can agree. We have to listen to members, we have to listen to our European parliamentary candidates who support this, but there will be a debate at the shadow cabinet and the NEC - we’ll see what comes out of it.
"Most of my colleagues on the NEC have been inundated with thousands of emails" on #Brexit, says Labour's Deputy Leader Tom Watson, "we've got to listen to the members"https://t.co/OEuik8XjpP pic.twitter.com/EIcBjSiDtF
More from HuffPost’s Paul Waugh on Labour’s NEC meeting.
One NEC member tells me today's meeting could be shorter than many had expected. Could be 3 or 4 hours, rather than a marathon of 6 or 8hrs. #itsallrelative
I'm told there are at least 4 absentees from NEC but that's all accounted for in the number crunching by leader's office. That's why they're confident of their minimum of 22 votes backing Corbyn line.https://t.co/9j9YKo8IJi
