THE DIVISIONS within the Tory Party are rapidly sharpening, with an ever widening gulf between those who want to remain in the EU and those who want to leave.
The Tory Party is collapsing. As many as forty pro-Brexit Tory MPs have signed a letter which states that Britain should not pay into the EU budget during a transition period and that ‘when we leave in 2019, we need to make sure we are well and truly out.’
Pro-Remain Tories are now calling for the heads of Steve Baker, a minister in the Brexit department, and Suella Fernandes, an aide to the chancellor, who encouraged MPs to sign the letter.
On Monday May faces a crucial vote in Parliament on the continuing Brexit negotiations, with both Labour and Tory remainers planning to vote against. For instance, former Tory attorney general Dominic Grieve described it as an ‘astonishing monstrosity’ of a bill and said he would vote against it.
The vote in parliament is on the EU Withdrawal Bill which will convert all existing EU laws into domestic ones. May’s fate hinges on the outcome of Monday’s vote. If May loses the vote it will split the Tory Party and finish her off.
Labour, too, is split. Its right wing has overthrown the the official position of the Labour Party in its general election manifesto that it would leave the EU, the single market and the customs union. However there are a number of Labour MPs who will vote for the Brexit Bill out of fear of losing their seats by becoming the target of working class anger.
Keir Starmer, who, ironically is Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the EU, said of Monday’s EU Withdrawal Bill: ‘It’s an unprecedented power grab. Rule by decree is not a mis-description. It’s an affront to Parliament and accountability.’
However since the majority of the country voted ‘Leave’, Starmer and right wing Labour’s attempt to overturn the referendum result is itself an attempted coup and power grab. Starmer led the right-wing coup in the Labour Party to change Labour Party national executive policy, calling for a transitional period in which the UK would remain in the single market and the customs union and continue to pay financial levies to the EU, and be ruled by the European Court – perhaps for ever.
There are now two Labour Party policies. One, its official policy, the policy of its general election manifesto, with which it smashed the Tory majority in the last general election. The other, the policy of the would-be coupists and power grabbers like Tom Watson, the Labour Deputy Leader, who declares that he is for the UK staying in the single market and the customs union indefinitely, in otherwords remaining in the EU, and to hell or worst with the referendum.
The right wing of the Labour party is determined to do whatever it takes to remain in the EU. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who pledged to fight for working people, is remaining stum in the face of the greatest attack on the people for many years, the defiance of its referendum result. Other stalwarts such as John McDonnell have also lost their voices, and allowed the right wing to power grab
In fact millions voted Labour in the snap election after reading its election manifesto which was crystal clear in its call to uphold the will of the people and break with the EU. Sunday is the first day of the Trade Union Congress annual conference in Brighton and the battle lines are drawn.
The TUC General Council is dominated by union leaders who want to stab the Brexit referendum result in the back, and remain in the EU at whatever the cost. Their ambition is limited to sitting on the bosses’ boards as their special advisers on how to handle the working class. However the situation has gone beyond this. British capitalism is broken. It must be replaced by socialism.
Congress must elect a new general council that will campaign to break with the EU NOW, pay no divorce settlement, and also to smash the Tory austerity and NHS privatising regime with a general strike to bring down the Tories and bring in a workers government and socialism.
The WRP and the YS will be lobbying for these policies on Monday morning in Brighton. Make sure that you are there!
