The Labour Party will impose a three-line whip on its MPs to vote against the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill in a move described as a “monstrous betrayal” of voters.
The left wing opposition party, which had previously promised to respect the EU referendum result, pledged to end Free Movement in its manifesto, and supported a full, clean Brexit from the bloc’s Single Market and Customs Union after the 2017 election, now says supporting the bill would “let government ministers grab powers from parliament to slash people’s rights at work and reduce protection for consumers and the environment”, The Guardian reports.
UK Independence Party interim leader Steve Crowther said the about-face “explodes the myth that Jeremy Corbyn is a man who sticks by his principles”.
The socialist “reneged on Labour’s promises over student debts, and now he has betrayed the 17.4 million people who voted for Brexit in the greatest ever exercise in democracy this country has ever seen”, he argued in a press release.
“Corbyn has now been captured by the Blairites, because he would rather give Mrs May a bloody nose than serve the people by upholding his principles and keeping his promises.”
Corbyn, like key lieutenant John McDonnell, hails from the remnant’s of Labour’s old Eurosceptic tradition, and he voted to leave the European Economic Community in 1975; against the Maastricht Treaty which transformed it into the European Union; and against the Lisbon Treaty which handed it sweeping new powers.
Brexit campaigners suspected he may have been beginning to show his “true Brexit colours” when he sacked MPs who voted against the activation of Article 50 — which pulled the starting gun on Britain’s official departure from the EU — from his front bench. But his U-turn on the Single Market and his decision to fight the withdrawal bill suggest Parliamentary Labour Party’s Europhile majority is back in control.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.