THE TORY Party is now on the brink of a split as pro-Remainers plan to unite with Labour, Liberal Democrat, Scottish and Welsh Nationalist MPs to defeat Brexit, even if it means bringing down the May government, and going forward to some national government that will ‘save the nation’ by remaining in the European Union.
A group of former Tory cabinet ministers are planning a public intervention in the House of Commons to show that the majority of the Conservative parliamentary party would support a ‘sensible’ Brexit, ie. one that overthrows the 2016 referendum result and allows the UK to remain in the union. This is what is commonly known as a ‘coup plot’ against the majority of the UK’s workers and middle class.
Tory MPs Justine Greening, Amber Rudd and Damian Green, former Tory cabinet members, intend to prove to PM May, who voted ‘Remain’, that she has got sufficient support to face down ‘Brexit hardliners’ in her party. They apparently have the support of the government chief whip, Julian Smith. They have decided to act after concluding that there is no chance of finding common ground with the European Research Group (ERG), the group of 48 MPs, Brexiteers, led by Somerset MP, Jacob Rees-Mogg.
The group of pro-EU mutineers have decided that in the event of a vote of confidence in her leadership, the prime minister would have the support of at least half of the 316 Tory MPs. That would be enough to survive any confidence vote which the ERG could trigger with the support of just 48 MPs. The Tory party would then split. However, the mutineers reckon that up to 300 of the opposition and independent MPs would join at least 100 Tory MPs in voting down a ‘no deal’ rejection of the EU. This would also create the conditions for a national government.
The BBC’s Newsnight says that one senior Tory mutineer told it that: ‘The prime minister is going to have to make a decision. If she comes down on the side of the ERG to keep 60 of them happy that will be unacceptable to us and our numbers are larger.’
Antoinette Sandbach, the Conservative MP for Eddisbury who supported Remain, told Newsnight: ‘The decision was taken that we would leave the political institutions of the EU but not how. That question of how we leave is incredibly important and why we need a pragmatic Brexit that preserves that close economic partnership whilst leaving the political institutions.’
She continued: ‘My constituents don’t like cabinet ministers openly rubbishing the plans of the prime minister in public. They want a sensible and considered compromise. Those that are arguing from an ideological perspective are in the wrong place compared to the vast majority of us at Westminster.’
However, Conservative MEP, Daniel Hannan has warned: ‘No deal is plainly better than a bad deal.’
It is clear that the majority of Tory MPs who voted ‘Remain’ in the referendum are determined not to carry out the referendum result, and that this will split the Tory party and bring down the government.
The Labour Party’s Blairite right wing will support any move to remain in the EU by any means necessary, including forming a national government with the Tories. Labour Party members in the constituencies should follow the advice of Unite leader McCluskey and de-select the Blairite rabble that are wedded to the EU.
In fact, the situation is now clarifying the minds of millions of workers. The British ruling class is broken and demoralised and is determined to remain in the EU, by hook or by crook. It is ready to lead a ‘vassal state’.
The working class in the UK must now take charge of events. It must take action to bring down the May government and bring in a workers’ government that will break with the EU at once. Since the Houses of Lords and Commons are not prepared to quit the EU, as instructed by the 2016 referendum, they must be shut down and replaced with a Workers’ Soviet that will expropriate the bosses and bankers to bring in socialism, and lead the fight to smash the EU and replace it with the Socialist United States of Europe.
