A link of interest from below the line.
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AnnieHawk points us to this piece by Ian Dunt, editor of politics.co.uk. In it, he argues that double think is at the heart of Theresa May’s Brexit strategy.
“We are all united in our belief that that world will be built on the foundations of free trade, partnership and globalisation,” she said in Davos. This was a remarkable thing to say, given that just days earlier she had announced she was pulling Britain out of the European single market and customs union, which eliminate tariffs for goods across borders, standardises regulation so products can be traded more easily and in many cases allow people to sell their services overseas without new qualifications.
Brexit? Tony Blair’s fault, according to chancellor Philip Hammond.
He was speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he covered migration, free movement and the single market.
You can catch all the latest on our Davos live blog.
Following on from Tim Farron’s comments on Corbyn yesterday, we now have Keir Starmer arguing that the Lib Dems only speak for the 48% who voted Remain.
Anushka Asthana and Rowena Mason have this story:
Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, has accused the Liberal Democrat leader, Tim Farron, of “fanning the flames of division” in Britain by ignoring the needs of those who voted to leave the EU.
The senior Labour politician, who is leading the opposition response to Brexit, said Farron has “absolutely nothing to say to the 52%” who voted to leave the EU.
Updated
And as we’ve been discussing the Copeland byelection, here’s Jessica Elgot’s story on Labour’s candidate. It begins:
Jeremy Corbyn’s preferred choice as Labour candidate for the Copeland byelection has been rejected by local party members, who instead chose a former doctor who backed the failed leadership challenger Owen Smith last summer.
Gillian Troughton’s selection will be seen as a victory for Labour moderates. The leadership is understood to have preferred Rachel Holliday, a homelessness campaigner and vocal Corbyn supporter who had only recently joined the party.
When we promoted our readers’ edition on the Guardian’s UK homepage, we asked whether Tim Farron’s claim of Jeremy Corbyn “lamely giving up” over Brexit was justified.
One reader has written a detailed post outlining their view of what Labour’s Brexit strategy should be.
Reasonable? Unreasonable? Comments, as always, welcome below the line.
Jeremy Corbyn has been making a speech in Glasgow. Our Scotland editor Severin Carrell has been following it.
Jeremy Corbyn: @theSNP "acting left in opposition at Westminster while acting right in power in Scotland is not standing up for Scotland"
— Severin Carrell (@severincarrell) January 20, 2017
Jeremy Corbyn: "too simplistic" to see Scottish problems as national questions & north English ones as economic. It is all people vs capital
— Severin Carrell (@severincarrell) January 20, 2017
Jeremy Corbyn: "too simplistic" to see Scottish problems as national questions & north English ones as economic. It is all people vs capital
— Severin Carrell (@severincarrell) January 20, 2017
Jeremy Corbyn says @theSNP "Reaganite" on business tax cuts = prosperity; ignores SNP council tax, supermarket & property sales tax hikes
— Severin Carrell (@severincarrell) January 20, 2017
Jeremy Corbyn; @UKLabour mission for 21st century must be "redistributing power, wealth, opportunity" across nations & regions after #Brexit
— Severin Carrell (@severincarrell) January 20, 2017
Jeremy Corbyn: Scotland's sluggish economy & rising jobless rate "a political failure created in offices of May & Sturgeon" @scottishlabour
— Severin Carrell (@severincarrell) January 20, 2017
Scotland’s first minister has already responded to the speech via Twitter.
Rubbish. And if Corbyn wasn't leading such a pitifully ineffective opposition, Tories wouldn't be getting away with half of what they are https://t.co/1bMOfonMKt
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) January 20, 2017
I’m not writing my usual blog today but here, as an alternative, is the Politics Live readers’ edition. It is a place for you to discuss today’s politics, and to share links to breaking news and to the most interesting stories and blogs on the web.
Feel free to express your views robustly, but please treat others with respect and don’t resort to abuse. Guardian comment pages are supposed to be a haven from the Twitter/social media rant-orama, not an extension of it.
You can read all today’s Guardian politics stories here.
And here are some of the main ones on our site this morning.
- The Liberal Democrat leader, Tim Farron, has accused Jeremy Corbyn of “lamely giving up” while Britain “drives off a cliff” towards Brexit, and said future generations will not forgive Labour for failing to stand up to Theresa May’s plans.
- Jeremy Corbyn will order Labour to vote in favour of triggering article 50 in a move likely to prompt a rebellion of around 30 MPs, including several frontbenchers.
- Labour has selected a former hospital doctor to be its standard bearer in the upcoming Copeland byelection.
- Martin McGuinness, the outgoing deputy first minister of Northern Ireland, has quit frontline politics to concentrate on recovering from “a very serious illness”.
- Seumas Milne, Jeremy Corbyn’s director of communications, is leaving the Guardian to work permanently for the Labour leader, it has been announced.
On Thursday nights local council byelections take place. There was one last night. Britain Elects has the result.
Conservative HOLD Norton (Bromsgrove).
— Britain Elects (@britainelects) January 19, 2017
Norton (Bromsgrove) result:
— Britain Elects (@britainelects) January 19, 2017
CON: 43.2% (-16.6)
LAB: 36.7% (+7.1)
UKIP: 16.2% (+16.2)
GRN: 3.9% (-6.6)https://t.co/YV7Fsgxi1x
Let us consider what WE think Labour ought to do now.
1. The soft/hard brexit debate is over. It's hard brexit - and that will have huge consequences. Labour must have a Red Line on just how far Theresa May's brexit strategy impacts the economy, incomes and jobs. It seems pretty clear that hard brexit crosses this line and a strong case can be made that the referendum did not include a mandate for this.
2. The negotiating stance set out by May in her speech is delusional at best, totally irresponsible at worst. Labour cannot possibly support her strategy as it is undeliverable and attempting to blackmail the EU with becoming an offshore tax haven if they don't give her the concessions she is demanding is beyond reason.
3. This is not just about agreeing to a "hard brexit approach". Theresa May has committed herself to something even worse - what I am calling the "ferroconcrete brexit" - ie. her threat to walk away completely from the EU if they offer her no trade deal that see considers acceptable. This means falling back on the WTO system, which would have horrendous implications for the UK economy.
4. The court case on whether the Royal Prerogative can be used is a done deal - the answer is going to be no, it can't. This being the case, there will have to be a vote on Article 50. What should Labour do? The argument goes like this. On the one hand the referendum result, although only advisory, requires Labour to allow the government to start negotiations but on the other, because the government has committed to a course of action already that is going to be deeply damaging, it is beholden on parliament to protect the interests of the people MPs represent, so they should block A50.
5. Labour can of course refuse to accept the A50 bill as drafted and seek to amend it to prevent Theresa May from rolling on from a Yes vote to A50 to the endgame of formally leaving and seeking a new access deal. So we need to consider whether this strategy is the right one. In effect, it would be a wrecking amendment, aimed to box negotiations in so tightly that unless full access is obtained, the issue has to come back to parliament and the "ferroconcrete brexit" option is effectively made impossible.
6. Armed with the amended A50 backstop, the EU will immediately see that Theresa May has no cards to play. Boxed in to doing a deal or giving up on brexit, the government will be in an incredibly weak position at the negotiations. All that the EU needs to do is to be seen to be giving some small ground, then saying NO.
7. Theresa May will be left with no choice. She will have to seek a new mandate. This means a general election on a tory hard brexit manifesto. The result of this election, being legally binding in a way that an advisory referendum result is not, will settle the brexit question permanently.
8. Labour can then lead a coalition of parties not willing to support the hard brexit policy, hopefully in an electoral pact which will enable the Remain camp to overcome the Leave vote, on the basis of demonstrating that the benefits of leaving - £350,000,000 per week for the NHS, preventing 70 million turks from coming to the UK, etc - are illusionary and the damage - plummeting currency, import inflation, huge job losses - are VERY VERY real.
9. Labour needs to challenge the legitimacy of the referendum. The law is plain that deliberate misrepresentation of the facts designed to deceive voters is against the law and that the Vote Leave Campaign did precisely that. In parallel with boxing the government in on the terms of their A50 negotiations, Labour needs to attack the lies of the campaign and seek prosecutions against the people who may have committed offences, Boris Johnson, Liam Fox, David Davis et al.
10. Labour needs to show leadership over the constitutional issues brexit has blown open. Devolution, the attacks on our membership of the ECHR, and on our EU membership and the failure to reform the House of Lords has left the great unwritten constitution completely open to abuse. This must change. There must be a written constitution and reform of the archaic structure.
There you are. The ten points I feel need to be addressed by Labour.