ON THURSDAY morning, the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker and Tory PM Johnson announced a Brexit deal. After three years, the EU finally conceded a deal that actually breaks the UK from the EU.
The deal that Johnson has successfully negotiated is unlike ex-Tory PM May’s deal which kept the UK languishing indefinitely in the ‘backstop’. The backstop is gone, and so is a hard border between the Republic of Ireland and the North.
After securing the deal with the EU, Tory PM Johnson appealed to all MPs to vote it through Parliament with a special emergency sitting today.
Meanwhile, masses are expected to descend on Parliament today demanding the UK ‘break with the EU now!’ The working class began this struggle in 2016 when it voted ‘Leave’ in the referendum and now it wants to see the deed done, and the UK out of the EU, and will be on the scene to assist.
In the House of Commons, the vote is going right down to the wire. The Democratic Unionist Party, whose votes the May government bought, does not want to give up its veto power over affairs in the Six Counties and so is threatening to vote against the deal.
Labour’s Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell told Labour MPs to vote against the deal, as has Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. He said: ‘We are unhappy with this deal and as it stands we will vote against the deal.’
This is a complete rejection of the Labour Party’s own 2017 general election manifesto pledge that Labour will ‘uphold the result of the 2016 referendum’.
Corbyn and McDonnell cannot face breaking from the EU. Neither can the majority of the trade union leaders who love the corporatist EU, which likes to see union leaders on bosses’ boards, where they take joint responsibility for wage cuts, pensions cuts and privatisations!
Labour MPs in working class areas are not in this position. Their supporters voted Leave and they are adamant that this is what their MPs must vote for.
Jim Fitzpatrick, Labour MP for Poplar and Limehouse, told talkRADIO on Thursday that MPs who regret not backing Theresa May’s deal are now considering voting for Johnson’s Brexit deal with the EU.
He said: ‘Only five of us voted for prime minister May’s deal on March 29 and several have subsequently said they wished they had joined us and voted for it. So those five, if they hold the same view once they get a chance to see prime minister Johnson’s deal, and if several others come forward then there could be between 10 and 20 Labour MPs who might vote for the deal.’
Fitzpatrick is one of 19 Labour MPs who told the EU on October 8 they would be willing to vote for a deal and that they hoped the EU ‘will not be attracted to the option of further delay’.
Those signatories are: Kevin Barron, Sarah Champion, Rosie Cooper, Jon Cruddas, Gloria di Piero, Jim Fitzpatrick, Caroline Flint, Yvonne Fovargue, Dan Jarvis, Stephen Kinnock, Emma Lewell-Buck, Justin Madders, Grahame Morris, Melanie Onn, Stephanie Peacock, Lucy Powell, Ruth Smeeth, Laura Smith, and Gareth Snell. Labour MP John Mann also said yesterday he will vote for the deal.
They must vote to quit the EU on October 31 and keep faith with their working class base. Many more Labour MPs must join them. If he wins the vote, Johnson intends to call a general election to launch his would-be alliance with President Trump.
Labour MPs must get ready to fight this election and to ensure that Labour fights on socialist policies, to nationalise the banks and the major industries to bring an end to this capitalist crisis.
The hated Universal Credit must be abolished, as well as student loans with a return to free state education from the cradle to graduation. Labour MPs must get ready to recognise the state of Palestine and assist with its liberation.
They must prepare for this election by purging the Labour Party and deselecting non-socialist MPs, packing them off to the LibDems and replacing them with convinced and determined socialists.
Everybody knows that capitalism is facing a new crash. The way forward is to go from quitting the EU to carrying out the much-needed British socialist
revolution!