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Labour Still Prevaricates Over People's Vote Commitment

Despite Labour's Conference policy which included supporting a People's Vote on any Brexit deal with the EU, determined in Liverpool 2018; the Labour leadership seems to remain dead against implementing democracy and giving the country the opportunity to agree or otherwise a deal which will affect them for generations to come.

The latest storm over leaflets for the probable upcoming EU elections in the UK does not help as it is once again placing the party in an invidious position.

Why does this matter to Health & Safety and Worker's Rights in the UK?

Simply put, leaving the EU will leave the UK desperate for a trade deal with the USA and as a result the country will need to dump EU standards on food safety, worker's rights, the environment, chemical safety at work and for consumers and many more standards which benefit the lives of this countries citizens.

We will have to succumb to US trade and business laws without having any say whatsoever. Whereas we do so within the EU.

There is no dubiety about this statement, given everything we now know about the demands of any free trade agreement made clearer by the US and of course with no objections to any of these things from Liam Fox, busy doing secret deals even before we leave the EU.

It is abundantly clear that only a Labour Government can and will protect these standards. However, it is almost impossible to see them being able to do so in the face of a dire need for an FTA with the US!

That may be one shared view, but the other is that leaving the EU with an agreement is better than remaining in an organisation moving further to the right, and one that has never put worker's rights before big business.

Both the CWU and Unite trade unions hold this view and are therefore against putting any final leave agreement to the people of the country, whist argueing that to do so is an affront to the democratic decision of the EU Referendum in 2016. This despite the fact we now know fraud was committed by the Leave camp and that the people were lied to about what leaving the EU would actually mean in reality.

Nevertheless, democracy is not about having only one vote per issue, otherwise we would not have elections to form new governments every 4 to 5 years!

The latest row about EU election leaflets not even mentioning a second referendum commitment within Labour constitutes a threat to the party's election chances according to many commentators.

The International Commission of Labour’s National Policy Forum, which includes MPs, trade unionists, MEPs and constituency reps, voted unanimously that the party’s Euro manifesto should include a promise for a confirmatory referendum, according to some reports.

But then this was clarified later by ITV's Robert Peston as being reported from within the meeting that no voter took place because there was no need to, given there was no dissent on Keir Starmer’s proposal that any government Brexit deal should be subject to ratification in a referendum.

He states this in ITV News website:

'Shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer, deputy leader Tom Watson and shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry were not consulted on the wording, even though they form part of the party’s Brexit sub-committee. The leaflet row emerged after leading Remain campaigner and People's Vote supporter Lord Adonis caused surprise when he had to sign an official Labour statement on Brexit. He confirmed later that he was still backing a People's Vote.

Insiders fear that activists will refuse to campaign for Labour if the Brexit position remains a fudge, but it is clearly all to play for within the Party over the coming days and weeks.'

This week, the CWU will debate an Emergency Motion at it's Conference on Sunday which in itself is contentious, given it merely confirms Labour's Conference stance from 2018, and therefore can be seen as not being an emergency motion at all. It adds mention of meetings between the Labour and Tory leaderships, in order to be seen as an Emergency motion.

The basis of the motion is to deflect the argument away from Brexit and to determine union policy in favour of the Labour leadership and the need to get Labour elected at the next General Election as can be seen within the terms of the motion:

'Whilst Labour Party policy has been to keep all options on the table, this Conference believes that the overriding principle should be Labour’s Manifesto commitment to accept the result of the referendum and deliver a Brexit deal that prioritises jobs and living standards. Therefore, Conference endorses the NEC position not to campaign for a second referendum/people’s vote and recognises that the CWU’s primary role is to unite our members and all workers around a transformative domestic agenda that builds on Labour’s 2017 Manifesto and delivers a new deal for workers.'

The full debate and motion details will follow asap after the debate has taken place.

Source: CWU / ITV / Unionsafety

 

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