By Tony O’Riley-
Sir Keir Starmer has the burden of having to silence labour backbenchers objecting to the Brexit deal, or face future criticism over the deal if it goes wrong in the end.
The Mps are objecting on the grounds that the party approved the deal before the legislation was published.
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The rebel Mps are strongly opposing the deal which they want to the Labour leader to reverse as a matter of urgency, but there are no signs of that happening yet.
Starmer himself has acknowledged there missing links in the deal that do not cater for worker’s right, but admits he considers an approval of the deal to be far better than the alternative of a no deal. That doesn’t change the big problem some of his own mps and activists have with the deal, which they want to see changed. Starmer will have the last word on how his party votes, but one thing he can’t afford is another big internal conflict over Brexit
The European Research Group (ERG), the influential group of Eurosceptic backbenchers is scrutinising the deal in great detail.
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A signed Labour statement urges Starmer not to support the deal , which they believe fails to protect the right of workers. The statement reads: “This deal is a substantial downgrade of the UK’s relationship with the EU,” the statement warns, “and is designed to open the door to rampant economic deregulation – a loss of rights and protections for workers, the environment, food standards and many other areas of life.”
Two former Labour leaders in the European parliament, Richard Corbett and Glyn Ford, as well as the former MEPs Julie Ward, Mary Honeyball, David Martin and Jude Kirton-Darling have also signed the statement, along with the former Labour cabinet minister Andrew Adonis.
Activists including Laura Parker, the former head of Momentum, the film-maker Paul Mason and Michael Chessum, from Another Europe Is Possible, who coordinated leftwing second-referendum efforts under Jeremy Corbyn, have also signed.
The group that signed the statement want the deal derailed by an objection from Labour. Labour say the task of the opposition is proper parliamentary scrutiny and setting out an alternative. “That task gets harder if opposition parties fall into the trap of rallying around this rotten deal,” it says.
“We are witnessing an act of vandalism against our livelihoods, our rights and our horizons. We call on Labour, the Labour movement and other opposition parties not to support the Tories’ Brexit deal when it is put to a vote in the House of Commons.”
The UK parliament has been recalled to sit on Wednesday 30 December to debate and vote on the legislation. If Starmer were to do a U turn and oppose it, the Brexit deal will not pass and would have to be reviewed, but he is not expected to succumb to the pressure, unless it gets really intense, and he agrees with them. The Lib Dems and the SNP are to vote against the deal.
The Democratic Unionist party said it would be voting against the Brexit deal “on a point of principle” and not because it supported no deal, it said. The party’s leader, Arlene Foster, said she recognised it reduced the impact of red tape on trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, but “we still have many negative issues” arising from the Northern Ireland protocol. Other Northern Ireland MPs from the SDLP and Alliance parties will also vote against the deal.
The European parliament is due to vote in February or March, when it is hoped MEPs will return to Strasbourg to complete the formal EU ratification process.
Speaking on Monday morning, the Cabinet Office minister, Michael Gove, hailed the deal but said British businesses faced a “bumpy” period from 1 January.
“Businesses will need to make sure that they’re ready for new customs procedures and we as individuals will need to make sure that our passports are up to date because they need to have at least six months before expiry on them in order to be able to travel abroad,” he said.
“I’m sure there will be bumpy moments but we are there in order to try to do everything we can to smooth the path.”
Terms Of Agreement
Under the terms of the agreement of EU fishing rights, 25% of EU boats’ fishing rights in UK waters will be transferred to the UK fishing fleet over a five-and-a-half-year transition period.
Gove said UK fishers would be “getting a significant uptick … we will have by 2026 about two-thirds of the fish in our waters”. However, Andrew Locker, the chairman of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations, said they would be “absolutely worse off” as a result of the deal.
“What we have got now is a fraction of what we were promised through Brexit. We are going to really, really struggle this year.”
Northern Ireland’s political parties that take their seats at Westminster are set to vote against the UK-EU post-Brexit deal this week.
The Commons will be recalled on Wednesday to allow MPs to vote on the agreement reached on Christmas Eve.
The DUP, the Alliance Party and the SDLP have indicated that they will not support the plan.
It comes as the Stormont Executive met virtually to discuss the deal in detail for the first time.
The DUP’s Brexit spokesman Sammy Wilson told BBC Newsline that because the agreement did not address “many issues that are damaging to Northern Ireland” his party’s eight MPs would vote against it.
NI Opposition
Meanwhile, Northern Ireland’s political parties that take their seats at Westminster are set to vote against the UK-EU post-Brexit deal this week.
The Commons will be recalled on Wednesday to allow MPs to vote on the agreement reached on Christmas Eve. They say the agreement does not address several issues that are against the interest of Northern Ireland.
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