LONDON (Labour Buzz) - Well, credit where credit’s due. Theresa May finally got her Brexit deal through. Boris is dancing around claiming victory for a deal, hoping we’ll all forget the tantrum he through when Theresa May served up something remarkably similar.
The question for opposition parties, how do they vote on this last-minute patchwork of a deal. SNP have come up with a quick answer: they will vote against it.
The Party’s Westminster leader confirmed the move saying the deal would be a ‘disaster’ for Scotland. His statement came as news emerged Hollyrood would be recalled to consider the deal.
Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said the deal sells out Scotland all over again as it grants EU fishermen access to UK waters.
Many would like to see Labour do the same, but this deal represents a difficult test for Starmer. Almost any decision could come back and haunt him. If Labour votes for the deal, as he has indicated they will, Johnson will use it to quieten any future criticism.
“You voted for this deal,” he will crow. This is the parliamentary equivalent of saying ‘it’s all your fault for not stopping me from making this massive mistake.’
Alternatively, Labour could join the SNP and Lib Dems in voting against the deal. This would risk alienating voters in leave voting seats and would see opponents claim he is now supporting the only alternative: no deal.
Whatever option he chooses, the deal looks likely to sail through. Brexit hardliners have put aside all doubts and are falling in behind a deal they had once promised to oppose to the bitter end.
All that remains is where opposition parties decide to position themselves. The SNP and Lib Dems have made their position clear. Brexit is the Tories’ disaster and they want no part of it.
Starmer’s reluctance stems from his obsession with Labour’s red wall voters. However, voting against the deal, he fears, would remind everyone that he was one of the loudest voices promoting remain before the last election. He was instrumental in moving the party towards supporting a second referendum.
Starmer has worked overtime to back peddle from that position since then. He will point to data suggesting Labour is now ahead in the red wall as supporting his decision. However, by voting against he can make a statement.
He can lay all the blame at the Tories for selling out the UK’s fishing industry; he can attack them for hamstringing the city, and for denying a generation of students access to the EU’s Erasmus program. He can call this deal out for the shocking capitulation it is something which is much harder to do if he then follows the Tories into the chamber and votes for it.
(Written by Tom Cropper, Edited by Klaudia Fior)