15 May 2019

Financial Times: Labour warns Theresa May it will not back Brexit deal in crunch vote

Labour warned Theresa May it will not support her Brexit deal in a showdown vote in early June unless the prime minister makes more concessions, including on ensuring any cross-party agreement is “Boris-proof”.

Labour is concerned that a Eurosceptic Conservative successor to Mrs May — notably former foreign secretary Boris Johnson — could rip up any compromise Brexit deal agreed by the government and the opposition party.

The prime minister told Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn on Tuesday that she would ask MPs to vote on June 4 or 5 on the withdrawal agreement bill that would implement her divorce agreement with Brussels.

Mrs May is hoping that talks with Labour on a compromise Brexit deal — focused on the UK’s long term relationship with the EU — will result in the opposition party voting for the bill.

Even if we could come up with a deal in the next week or so, within weeks you could have a new leader in place and the deal could be ripped up Shadow chancellor John McDonnell But John McDonnell, shadow chancellor, told the Financial Times’ Brexit and Beyond conference: “We don’t believe that — on a number of issues — the government has moved sufficiently to persuade our own side it’s worth supporting.

“Even if we could come up with a deal in the next week or so, within weeks you could have a new leader in place and the deal could be ripped up.”

The government and Labour have been in talks for about six weeks about a compromise Brexit deal after MPs rejected Mrs May’s EU withdrawal agreement three times.

As well as wanting any compromise to be “Boris proof”, Labour is pushing Mrs May to agree to its proposal for a permanent customs union between the UK and the EU. [...]

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