Labour is not a “soft Brexit” party
Comments on socialistresistance.org2010sA comment by Alan in the thread under “British politics in utter turmoil” on socialistresistance.org.
The publication's own web text.
Editor's note. Posted under Alan's article British politics in utter turmoil, on Labour's conference decision of September 2019 to put any Brexit deal to a referendum with an option to remain. Frank Morris welcomed that, but argued that because the conference also backed Corbyn's aim of “a sensible leave deal”, Labour would fight an election as “the 'soft Brexit' party”, and that negotiating a deal only to recommend rejecting it was a “clever tactic” he did not believe in.
I think it is a mistake to define Labour as a ‘soft Brexit’ party – or any other kind of Brexit party – as Frank Morris does. It conflicts with his own statement that ‘that in a general election, the way to defeat any kind of Brexit is to vote Labour’. Nor could any kind of Brexit party conduct the ferocious campaign that Labour has against a no-deal Brexit, or indeed pledge to put any deal on offer (including its own) to a second referendum with a remain option. That has been the decisive shift in Labour policy in recent weeks.
Nor, in my view, should Labour’s conference policy on Brexit be dismissed ‘as clever negotiating tactics’. Labour is now the ‘let the people decide’ party – which I think is the correct stance and better than a top down call in the current circumstances. As Frank Morris says, most Labour members know exactly what they will be campaigning for.
Labour is also right to seeks to negotiate the best deal on offer from the EU – which would effectively be one that keeps Britain in the customs union and avoid a border in Ireland – and then ‘let the people decide’ in a second referendum against a remain option. This would have the advantage of reaching out to the pro-Brexit Labour members and supports rather than completely ignoring them. The EU would clearly open to negotiations on such a framework.