THE TOTTERING Tory government of Theresa May was dealt another massive blow on Wednesday night when the ten Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) MPs abstained in a routine vote on the Agricultural Bill before parliament.
The bill itself was not the issue. What their abstention represented was a ‘shot across the bows’ of May that the DUP is prepared to vote against the forthcoming Tory budget on October 29 if the Tories conclude a deal with the EU over Brexit that sees the north of Ireland treated separately from the rest of the UK.
After the disastrous general election called by May, the Tories lost their majority in parliament and have only been kept off the life support system by a deal with the DUP whereby they vote with the Tories on all crucial matters in return for a £1 billion ‘bribe’.
The threat by the DUP to vote against the Budget is serious for May, as, historically, a defeat on the Budget is the equivalent of a no-confidence vote and would immediately trigger a general election. May, however, immediately signalled that she is prepared to break with any parliamentary procedures insisting that she would not have to call a general election even if the government didn’t get the Budget passed, claiming that changes to parliamentary procedures introduced by the previous Cameron government, when fixed term parliaments were brought in, exempted her.
What she couldn’t explain was how a government could carry on working when its budgetary proposals had been rejected. What has caused uproar amongst the DUP and Tory Brexiteers, is the latest ‘backstop plan’ being put forward by May which would involve the whole of the UK remaining in the EU customs union while an endless process of negotiating free trade agreements takes place – a process that would be strung out indefinitely by the EU and the Tories.
Meanwhile the north of Ireland would also remain in the single market – hence the DUP’s anger at the north being treated differently from the rest of Britain. With the DUP threatening a revolt that would bring the Tories crashing down, up to 40 Tory MPs are believed to be prepared to vote against any backstop deal. Boris Johnson described it as making the ‘UK a permanent EU colony.’
With her own MPs threatening an uprising to oust her and the DUP issuing dire threats to bring her minority government crashing down, May has made an open appeal for Labour MPs to step into the breach and save the Tories and help her push remaining tied to the EU permanently through parliament.
May made her appeal in a speech to the House of Commons on Wednesday where she begged Labour MPs to put ‘national interest’ ahead of any loyalty to the Labour Party. May knows full well that the Labour right wing are as desperate as she is to overturn the referendum result and remain in the customs union and tied forever as a permanent colony of the bosses and bankers of the EU.
The next step for May would be to use this split in the Labour Party to call a general election around the question of ‘national interest’ in an unholy alliance with Labour’s right wing. At a time when the Tories have never been more split and divided and hated by the working class, it is clear that they are relying on the treachery of the right wing of the Labour Party to keep her in power and overturn the Brexit referendum result.
The working class, which voted overwhelmingly to leave the EU, must insist that the Labour Party does not renege on its 2017 general election commitment to leave the single market and customs union and any Labour MP voting to keep May in office be thrown out of the party.
The demand now must be to bring down the Tories. If the Labour Party is unable to force a general election on this pathetic travesty of a Tory government, then the trade unions must be forced to act by calling a general strike to kick them out and go forward to a workers government that will break immediately from the EU and advance to a socialist society.