MPs must stop the skullduggery and stop no-deal.
At his last prime ministers’ questions appearance, Tony Blair said “some may belittle politics but we know it is where people stand tall. And although I know it has its many harsh contentions, it is still the arena which sets the heart beating fast. It may sometimes be a place of low skulduggery but it is more often a place for more noble causes.”
The expected vote of no confidence in the government and its aftermath provides an opportunity to test that contention.
It may be that a vote of no confidence and the formation of a “caretaker” government will be the only way to avoid a no-deal Brexit on 31 October.
MPs have voted a number of times to reject a no-deal Brexit. Labour, the SNP, Lib Dems, Plaid Cymru, Change UK, the Greens, independent MPs and a large number of Tory MPs are deeply opposed to no-deal.
Jeremy Corbyn said today that he will do “everything necessary” to avoid a no-deal Brexit and Jo Swinson said in a recent speech that she stands “ready to work with anyone to stop Boris Johnson and his hard-line Brexit government”.
The question is whether MPs opposed to no-deal will be able to put aside their narrow electoral, factional and ideological cudgels and act in the wider national interest.
With weeks to go until a potential no-deal Brexit, and despite having a clear majority in the House of Commons, it seems far from clear that MPs opposed to no deal will be able to work together to stop it.
It is true that a highly diverse coalition is needed to stop a no-deal Brexit, involving those who are far from natural bedfellows.
Yet MPs from different parties work together all the time on select committees and All-Party Parliamentary Groups despite their broader political differences.
It is well understood that a “caretaker” government would have a strictly limited remit: stopping a no-deal Brexit on 31 October, negotiating an extension to the Article 50 deadline with the EU27 and putting in place a general election.
Jeremy Corbyn, as leader of the opposition, naturally feels that he should lead any “caretaker” government.
Jo Swinson has seemingly rejected this out of hand saying, without a hint of irony, “this is the time for grown-up politics”.
Swinson’s reasoning was that “here is no way [Corbyn] can unite rebel Conservatives and independents to stop Boris Johnson. It’s not even certain he would secure the votes of Labour MPs.”
Is she right? Tory MP Guto Bebb summed up the dilemma for those like him, saying “I certainly take the view that a short-term Jeremy Corbyn government is less damaging than the generational damage that would be caused by a no-deal exit.”
Other Conservatives have not been so forthright, yet reading between the lines fewer Conservatives have wholly rejected supporting a Jeremy Corbyn led “caretaker” government than might be thought.
The Sun recently covered comments by Oliver Letwin with the headline “’TRAITOR’ U-TURN Tory rebel Oliver Letwin backs down and says he WON’T help Jeremy Corbyn get into No10 after backlash over Remainer plots to stop Brexit”.
Yet Letwin’s actual words tell a different story. He said in relation to supporting a Corbyn led “caretaker” government, “I’m not very inclined to do that if it could possibly be avoided – it’s not something I would do under any circumstances in normal life and I’d much prefer to find some other means of getting to a substantive result”. That seemingly leave the door ajar, albeit very slightly, for a Corbyn led “caretaker” government.
On the flipside, Jeremy Corbyn has also not wholly shut the door on a caretaker government led by a backbencher, such as Ken Clarke or Harriet Harman, despite John McDonnell ruling this out
This may all end up being a game of chicken or prisoners’ dilemma with a serious risk that MPs do not cooperate and the country crashes into a no-deal Brexit.
What happens may depend on whether anti-no-deal MPs prioritise low skulduggery or a noble cause. Let us all hope that they chose the latter.
Omar Salem is a Labour Party member and anti-Brexit activist. He writes in personal capacity.
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4 Responses to “To stop no-deal, MPs must work with those they’re not comfortable with”
Tom Sacold
You can be sure that any sort of ‘deal’ that the EU agree to will ensure that we can never implement any real socialist reform i the UK.
The rules of the Single Market will be enforced by the ECJ in the interests of multilateral corporations and profits for the bosses.
Tom Sacold
You can be sure that any ‘deal’ will continue to allow cheap foreign labour to flood into our country and take British workers jobs as they have been doing for the past 25 years.
Tom Sacold
The Blairites will feel quite at home working with the Tories, Liberal Democrats and nutty Nationalists to ensure that the EU neoliberal capitalist club continues to enforce it’s rip-off economics on us.
Trevor Collins
Tom Sacold: Do you have a problem with immigrants? You are repeating the well trodden Tory lies that “Europeans come over here to take our jobs”.
Are you a qualified Doctor, a qualified airline pilot, a qualified nurse or are you complaining that the Tories and New Labour failed to implement the available EU rules to repatriate workless EU citizens after three months. It’s not the EU you should be blaming for immigration, which will of course be replaced by immigrants from other countries around the world to provide some of the services the working class depend on.