PM May yesterday attacked former Labour PM Tony Blair accusing him of ‘undermining’ her Brexit talks by calling for a second referendum.
In fact Blair’s intervention is a stroke of good fortune for the beleaguered Tory leader, whose mission always was to ‘leave’ the EU but leave the working class still bound hand and foot by the EU and its European Court of Justice (ECJ) via a never-ending ‘backstop’.
Blair’s support for anything is a real ‘kiss of death’. He is hated as the man who took the UK to war with Iraq, based on a pack of lies. Hundreds of thousands of completely innocent men women and children died because of his decision to support a US attack on Iraq, which destroyed it and led to the rise of ISIS, and further mass killings, and not least the massive exodus of millions from the Middle East as people fled for their lives.
Now Blair is returning and fancies installing himself as the leader of Labour’s right wing, by fomenting an anti-Brexit coup. Their choice is either a second referendum or a straight forward House of Commons coup after the ECJ found that the UK could unilaterally rescind Article 50 and remain in the EU.
They want a second referendum, but also dread that they could lose it or that it could lead to battles on the streets, or to claims that it was being rigged. In fact workers in the UK are becoming more and more anti-EU, as they look at the French workers being battered in the streets by ‘Emperor’ Macron.
When Macron declares for a European Army, UK workers and youth declare ‘Leave us out of it’. The working class in the UK is going to quit the EU to go forward to socialism. And they are not on their own, the workers of France, Italy, Belgium and Greece feel exactly the same way.
The Tory party is now in a desperate crisis with splits and divisions galore and with many MPs desperate to capitulate to the EU bullies who are treating the UK exactly as they treated Greece. Instead of pushing forward to defend Brexit as Labour did when it destroyed May’s majority in the 2017 general election, and opposing May’s capitulation to Brussels, Labour’s left leadership is paralysed. It is unable to say exactly what it will do.
Appearing on the Andrew Marr Show on Sunday morning, Andrew Gwynne, Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, was asked directly: ‘Are you going to try to bring down this government before Christmas?’
He replied: ‘The main thing that we want next week is that meaningful vote on the withdrawal agreement… We’ve secured that meaningful vote for Parliament, we can’t move to the next stage until Parliament has decided whether or not to back the prime minister’s deal.’
‘So to be absolutely crystal clear,’ said Marr, ‘you will not put down a motion of no confidence in this government until you’ve had a meaningful vote on the Brexit arrangements?’ Gwynne replied: ‘Well we think that that’s the next logical step because we want to make sure that Parliament has its say on what is a catastrophically bad deal for this country. We can then move on beyond that, but I’m not interested in the theatrics of what goes on in the House of Commons. I want to make sure that Parliament takes back control of this process and has a say on Theresa May’s deal.’
Marr continued: ‘Why not go to the House of Commons tomorrow and put down a vote of no confidence in the government and try to win it?’ Gwynne replied: ‘Because we want to do that when we can succeed and the first step is to get this deal decided on by the House of Commons. Until the Commons has had its view on Theresa May’s deal she’s going to limp on pretending that this can get through. The reality is this can’t get through.’
Marr said: ‘Can I ask you is it still clearly the position as far as you are concerned, if you don’t get that general election you will vote for a second referendum?’ Gwynne replied: ‘We’ve said we want a general election, that is the party policy, and it was agreed unanimously at Labour Party Conference, clearly if we get beyond that period then everything has to be on the table here.’
Marr said: ‘In that circumstance, if there is a second referendum, if that’s voted through by the House of Commons and happens, is the Labour Party going to go into that second referendum advocating that we should stay in the EU or that we should leave the EU?’
Gwynne could not even reply to that question. He said: ‘We are going to have to discuss tactics if and when we come to that? Policy is decided by our members in a democratic and open way.’
With Labour paralysed workers must defend Brexit and see it through with mass strike actions to bring Parliament to its senses, or bring it down. Workers must join the WRP and build the revolutionary leadership that will organise to break with the EU at once, and expropriate the British bankers and bosses to go forward to socialism. It will ally itself with the workers of Europe to bring down the EU and replace it with the Socialist United States of Europe. This is the only way forward!
