Chancellor Hammond said yesterday that he would seek to bring down the Tory government if it tried to take Britain out of the European Union without a deal.
Appearing on Sky News, Hammond was asked if he would vote for or against the government in a no-confidence vote if it pursued no-deal.
He replied: ‘I’ve been in Parliament for 22 years and I have never once voted against the Conservative whip, so it is not something that I would do lightly or enthusiastically.
‘But I am very clear that the national interest trumps the party interest.
‘And if I am presented with a difficult choice, I will act in what I believe is the best interest of this country.’
Meanwhile, CWU (Communications Workers Union) General Secretary Dave Ward called for the Labour Party’s 2017 election manifesto commitment ‘to respect the referendum result’ to be adhered to yesterday.
‘I don’t think we should be backing a second referendum. Labour should say that it is going to deliver Brexit,’ Ward told Sky News.
He went on: ‘I’m very concerned, as a lot of people are, about moving this debate forward and getting on to what I believe is the real divide in Britain and solving that, and I believe that the real divide is between rich and poor.
‘Growing inequality is driving millions of people to struggle to put food on the table.
‘If you look at the life chances of the younger generation, of my own children, of my grandchildren, elderly people in care, these are massive problems in this country and we cannot carry on having the oxygen taken out of that debate and suffocating it.
‘What is going to change the people’s lives is getting a Labour government elected.
‘I find it bizarre that some people see the chances of going for a second referendum as if somehow that is going to increase Labour’s chances of winning that election and sorting out the real problems …
‘There’s a figure that tells the true story and goes to the root of the anger felt by working class people, who I think would feel abandoned if Labour changed its policy now and dropped its commitment to delivering a soft Brexit, and it’s this.
‘In the last 40 years the proportion of the GDP in this country that goes to workers has fallen from 65% to 49% …
‘I’ve become increasingly concerned with the attitudes of some people who are trying to turn this into some sort of culture war, not an economic debate, not about how you get decent jobs, decent public services.
‘I think this is very, very dangerous. I think it’s playing into the hands of the Brexit Party and the likes of Tommy Robinson and I think it’s abandoning working class people and not listening to their concerns. That is the biggest threat to getting Labour elected.’
