ANALYSIS: Labour wants to seize the controls on Brexit - but is unsure which buttons to push
3 min read
Picture the scene: You’ve offered to cook dinner but have no idea what to make. And everyone is sitting around the table hungry.
A party yearning to topple the Government on the back of one crucial question might be expected to have a strategy to deal with it. Not Labour. Jeremy Corbyn and co have been plotting their course to power by way of the so-called Commons ‘meaningful vote’ on the draft Brexit deal in December. The Government is all-but certain to be defeated when MPs from its own side join forces with the opposition to vote against the controversial blueprint - dealing a potentially fatal blow to the permanently-struggling Theresa May administration. Labour argues that will be the opportunity to take over - whether through a snap general election or by forming a minority administration if the Government cannot command a working majority.
But in an interview with the House Magazine this week, Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer had little to say about how Labour would push ahead with Brexit negotiations if it gets the chance. The party wants a “close economic partnership” with the bloc, including membership of the customs union and a single market “deal” - but how it would secure its demands remains a mystery. Starmer says Labour would “take each step as it comes” and would rather complain about Theresa May running down the clock than be clear on how Labour might use the little time left or whether it would apply for an extension. He speaks of the Labour proposals as ideas which "could have been negotiated" rather than ongoing possibilities.
Meanwhile, the party is split over the tone it wants to take on Brexit. Jeremy Corbyn this week said the withdrawal from the EU could act as a “catalyst” to boost the British economy - once more flirting with eurosceptic language to appeal to Labour voters in Brexit heartlands. But Starmer refused to take a similar tack. Instead he argued the “most important thing is to safeguard the economy” and warned that a failure to protect manufacturing and services through the process would lead to job losses.
The Shadow Brexit Secretary could not even think of a single benefit of quitting the EU. “It's very difficult for somebody who voted Remain to say that there are positives to come out of this - but we voted to have a referendum,” he said. And yet he is tasked to deliver it if Jeremy Corbyn reaches Downing Street.
The demand for an election from Labour surely prompts a pivotal question: Would a fight over party politics, wide-ranging manifesto commitments and leadership really answer the questions thrown up by Brexit? Starmer thinks it could - while offering a chance for Brits to spell out what they want for the country afterwards. But the blueprint for how it gets to that 'afterwards' appears to be unwritten.
Labour clearly has its eye on post-Brexit power - but unless it wants to find itself with empty plates at dinner time, it needs some more immediate answers too.
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