Labour will have a lot of questions to answer if we leave without a deal
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As any Leave voter will happily tell you, Theresa May was no Brexiteer. Her Withdrawal Deal, which would have left Britain bound by any future changes to EU law with no say over those changes, reeked of “damage limitation”. To hardcore Tory Brexiteers who voted to leave in the hope of reclaiming parliamentary sovereignty, it was a disgrace. And predictably, they voted it down in their droves.
Less predictable was Labour’s reaction. For a party which campaigned to Remain, but stood in 2017 on a manifesto which baldly stated that the result of the referendum should be implemented, one would have thought the deal was a rather good offer. It preserved most of Britain’s relationship with the EU, but gave a big nod to the 52 per cent of the population who voted Leave — many of whom hailed from Labour heartlands. After tortuous talks, Theresa May even threw in some serious concessions on workers’ rights, and a good deal of money for deprived areas in Labour constituencies. But still, the Opposition said no.
Why? Well, partly, of course, because they wanted to embarrass the Conservatives. After Cameron’s shock victory in 2015 — and CCHQ’s arrogance during the 2017 campaign — watching Theresa May’s majority slip through her fingers must have been very satisfying indeed for the Opposition. Suddenly, they were in a position of power, and one can understand, to an extent, why saying no to the Prime Minister in her hour of need was tempting. Schadenfreude, though, isn’t conducive to working in the national interest, and it was reasonable of Theresa May to hope that, after making their point by voting down her deal the first and second times, they would swallow their pride and back it when asked for a third time.
But there was another reason. Obsessed by the idea of a Brexit-vanquishing second referendum, Labour MPs saw it as a strategic gamble to hold out against May’s deal. Yes, the compromise would be OK, but why settle for OK when everything is going your way? With Parliament adamantly opposed to leaving without a deal, surely, they calculated, Brexit would be kicked into the long grass altogether if they simply kept saying no to a deal.
It was a gamble which, if Labour had played its cards right, might well have paid off. Theresa May, after failing to get her deal through the commons three times, duly got removed from Number 10 — and things didn’t exactly go smoothly for her successor. Through the Benn Act, Opposition MPs succeeded in essentially overturning the law which made no-deal the default, and in the process of doing so also managed to strip the new Prime Minister of his majority. Labour MPs who had held out against May’s deal should have felt vindicated: Brexit and the Conservative Party had been struck a fatal blow, and in a General Election could easily have been finished off.
But the reckless courage they showed when playing chicken with Theresa May’s deal suddenly deserted them when a General Election was on the table. After three years of waiting for an opportunity to put the kibosh on Brexit, they didn’t dare vote for it when it came knocking at their doors.
Propped up by those Labour MPs, Boris Johnson’s Government has now had the time to put together a new Withdrawal Deal, the details of which were announced earlier this week. Of course, it isn’t perfect, but as Daniel Johnson wrote yesterday, it represents an attempt by the British Government to find a solution that meets the demands of all sides, while factoring devolved democracy into the Northern Irish equation, as the Belfast Agreement requires. And, most importantly for anyone worried about the consequences of a no-deal Brexit, it would take it “off the table”. And yet, within an hour of the details being published — before anyone had had a chance to read and scrutinise the document — the Labour leadership had released a statement saying that it could not support it.
No one knows what will happen with Brexit now. But one thing’s for sure: leaving without a deal is still very much an option. Yes, the Benn Act might mean we get an extension, but that extension could well make no-deal even more likely: after watching Britain flail around a few extra months for no good reason, the EU may (quite reasonably) decide enough is enough and kick us out. If that happens – or the PM finds a legal loophole to the Benn Act and gets Britain out without a deal on 31 October — Labour will have a lot of questions to answer. Three times they’ve been given an opportunity to see off no-deal for good. And three times they have rejected it.
