John Mills on Labour and brexit

[Suff]

There is now an existential crisis facing the Labour Party. If we continue down this road, and MPs oppose the will of the British people in favour of Brexit, there is no plausible way in which I can see the Party forming a government in 2020.'

I concur.

Perhaps the front benchers might want to explain this to their constituents.

Or not.

I'm sure belief is much easier since what happened to Labour in Scotland..

[Workingman]

John Mills, chairman of the Labour Leave group, said Labour MPs even considering voting against triggering Article 50 showed how out of touch the party was with its traditional supporters.

Noting that 70 per cent of Labour-held seats voted last year to leave the EU, he added: "There is now an existential crisis facing the Labour Party. If we continue down this road, and MPs oppose the will of the British people in favour of Brexit, there is no plausible way in which I can see the Party forming a government in 2020."

That is a bit clearer. It tells us that there is not an existential crisis in Labour. The very idea that 70% Labour MPs (notice the increase in the % from the other day) some 160 of them, will vote against the A50 bill is utter rubbish. What he is doing is using that unsupported and spurious claim to bang a few heads together, nothing wrong with that. There will be some who will vote against, no doubt about that, just as there will be some from other parties also doing the same.

His main concern is not A50, or even the 2020 GE. He knows that, barring a bus load of miracles, the election is lost. Nor is worried about the the existence of the Labour party - its imminent demise is much overblown. His concern, one no doubt shared by other members for their own party, is where Labour will fit into the new political landscape following 2020 and Brexit. At that time all of the parties will be jostling about trying to claim some sort of ground and Labour will still be one of the biggest.

[Suff]

I didn't quite read it that way. I read it as 40 MP's voting to derail A50 could massively impact 100 or more seats due to incensed voters and loss of confidence.

Different viewpoint.

[Workingman]

I see that Jeff Smith, Jo Stevens, Daniel Zeichner and Tulip Siddiq have all decided to defy the Labour whip, there will be more.

What is interesting is the big numbers. Labour has about 74 MPs in Remain voting seats and if they act democratically and do as their constituents voted for they will vote against the A50 Bill. However, some 82 Tory MPs find themselves in the same situation and could also go with their constituents and vote against. There are also seats in Scotland, NI and Wales.

Even if they all band together and vote against it the Bill will still get through by a large margin.

All the muck-raking by the media will not crash Labour any more than it would turn the Tory seats into LibDem ones.

It has all become ar5e about face. On any normal day many millions of voters complain that their MPs do not represent their constituents and vote in parliament as they damned well please, but in this case, when they say they will meet their constituents' demands, the world and his dog are up in arms.

[Workingman]

Ah, diddums.

498 MPs voted to trigger A50, 114 voted against, so it went through on a landslide as we all knew it would.

Then came the news that of the 114 only 47 of them were Labour, not the 70 or so predicted by the doom mongers. There were 38 missing or abstentions and yet the media cannot let the Labour thing go.

Pah-thetic.

[Suff]

What interests me is that nobody has made the link to the fact that a 3 line whip excuses the MP's who's constituencies voted for remain. It gives them an out to either abstain or vote for.

Another point is that if Labour doesn't do anything for going against the whip, then it will all be a simple way of giving Labour MP's an out because of the serious division of Leave/Remain among their constituencies.

The press "doing their thing" again rather than analysing the situation.

[TheOstrich]

Is there not perhaps an element here of lose the battle, win the war?
Nobody was going to stop Brexit in its tracks on tonight's motion - surely the struggle will come with any House of Lords amendments, and ultimately any vote on the final terms?

Nice to see the ex-EU ambassador has waded in again and amongst other dire pronouncements, has re-iterated that the 60bn Euro commitment to the EU budget will be expected to be paid .... I seriously hope if common sense and fairness doesn't prevail, Theresa May will walk away from the talks and initiate a hard Brexit. And there is a growing body of opinion out there that we now need "to stop messing about and get on with it" , judging by this evening's local BBC news.

[Workingman]

Err, if their constituents voted to remain then the Labour MPs would vote against A50, and that is what some 47 of them have done. Whip or no whip they have obeyed the wishes of their constituents.

This exactly the opposite of Tory MPs whose constituents voted remain but who have gone against their wishes and voted for A50 - they rebelled as well, but not against the party. However, there is not so much as a whiff of condemnation in the press over their duplicity. Ironically, Ken Clarke is the only one to openly defy the Tories, and he is getting pats on the back all round.

It is perfectly honourable to go against the wishes of your constituents if it fits the agenda, and Satanically criminal to do so if it does not fit the agenda.

[Suff]

In some ways it would have been better for them all to vote their constituents vote.

Then again, in another way, there has been a referendum and the people have already voted. The MP's should all have voted to trigger it, if they were listening to the referendum.

Conundrum.

[AliasAggers]

I don't think some of them know what "Government of the people by the people" means.