"This was a narrow result and one won on a pack of lies and it was only an advisory referendum" -- Richard Corbett MEP
Richard Corbett MEP has just been elected as the leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party (EPLP). With that, he gets a place on Labour’s ruling body, the National Executive Committee.
He is therefore, someone of considerable influence within the party – particularly when it comes to European matters.
The MEP spoke to us about the party’s Brexit policy, and the possibility of a second referendum.
Mr Corbett, like a growing number of people in the Labour Party, is keen to emphasise that Brexit is not final.
Indeed, he is open to the possibility of a second referendum.
“Whilst we’re heading towards a very costly and damaging Tory Brexit, we should keep all of our options open, because we may well have to oppose that Brexit if it’s going to be a complete disaster.
“When the [Brexit] deal comes back to the House of Commons, it’s almost certain that Labour will be voting against that deal.”
But what happens if voters oppose the deal?
“If it’s rejected then you have to have an assessment of what we do now: do we reconsider Brexit?
“If so does that need a second referendum…or a referendum on the deal?
“That’s a bridge you can cross when you come to it.”
Labour, and the country, is in no way bound to last year’s referendum result Mr Corbett seemed to say:
“This was a narrow result and one won on a pack of lies. It was only an advisory referendum.”
Mr Corbett compared the referendum to a general election: “[Some in the Labour party said] no, we don’t give up when we lose a general election. We don’t immediately accept what the Tories want to do in government. We fight on.
“Others said that’s the will of the people, you have to accept it. So there was a range of views, and that’s understandable.”
He continued: “But as time moves on, it’s less about the principle of what we should have done in relation to last year’s referendum, it’s increasingly about how we react to next year’s real Brexit as it emerges and that will be what the Tories manage in the end to negotiate as a Brexit deal.
“And what they are negotiating certainly looks like it will be very damaging to the country.”
Asked whether there were strong rifts on Labour’s NEC over Brexit, Mr Corbett said he had yet to attend a meeting but said: “disagreements would be a strong word. There are nuances and a range of views but we’re not split.”
Mr Corbett’s election to the NEC will be heartening to Labour Remainers, less so to opposing factions in the party who would prefer to keep Labour policy on Brexit off the agenda for as long as possible.
Oscar Webb is a staff writer for Left Foot Forward. He tweets here.
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12 Responses to “EXCLUSIVE: Labour’s new leader in Europe just suggested we can halt Brexit”
Dulari-Leiylah Markelke
This is the battle to take to tories stop brexit second referendum not on a pack of lies and quickest way to oust tories and that is why referendum for tories is so no no .brexit means brexit insanity stop it asap
Michael
As Mr Keynes is reputed to have said, “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, Sir?”
Pete Rose
Last year, around €450 million was spent on MEPs’ salaries, travel expenses and office costs.
At €599,201 a year, I’m not surprised that Mr Corbett wants to stop Brexit.
Ian Crickett
I get totally brassed of with the statement ”will of the people’. I believe 30% of the people didn’t vote. So that’s roughly 51% of 70%, or 35.7% of those eligible, who actually voted for Brexit. A fair proportion of those may well have refrained from voting because they were given so much conflicting
(mis)information that they felt they couldn’t form a valid opinion. I personally have little doubt how the vote would go now. Few people seem to realise that the result was only supposedly advisory, but the way things have gone since the referendum means that the nation’s whole destiny has to be settled on that one day’s vote?
John Nelson
The British people were duped by misrepresentations, distortions and knowingly misleading promises made by the Leave campaign. Who flies the flag spouting the benefits that come from EU funding of major infrastructure works, of science and education, of environmental projects, and more. In the UK there is silence on the positives of EU membership, so that the only mention of the EU that the public gets is almost invariably hostile.
Who are these people disparaging the EU? The Express, Rupert Murdoch’s Sun, and the Daily Mail (a collage of its front pages over the years makes an astonishing gallery of hostility and deliberate misinformation). Membership of the EU does produce an enormous amount of good and with improvement could promise even more. Theresa May would turn us in Britain into an offshore island with its voice diminished and no influence whatsoever on the political stage. Surely the ultimate aim of all forward thinking progressive people is to make our European corner of the world a place of peace, co-operation and progress.