Labour leader says it will not be possible for frontbenchers to keep their jobs if they vote against bill to start Brexit process

Jeremy Corbyn has suggested he would be prepared to sack shadow cabinet ministers who vote against triggering article 50, saying also he will back the measure in parliament even if he cannot secure any amendments to it.

Following the resignation this week of Labour frontbenchers who said they could not support the bill to start the formal process of Brexit, the Labour leader said it was their choice, and that there had been no need for anyone to step down at that stage.

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However, Corbyn said it would not be possible for frontbenchers to remain in their jobs while voting against the article 50 bill when it comes before parliament.



“It’s obviously impossible to carry on being in the shadow cabinet if you vote against a decision made after a very frank and long discussion of the shadow cabinet earlier this week,” he told ITV’s Peston on Sunday.

The issue is threatening to become hugely divisive for the party. The shadow Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer, has tabled a series of amendments to the government’s two-clause bill, including on tariff-free access to the EU’s single market, and a final say for MPs on any deal.

Some Labour MPs have said they still cannot support the measure. The shadow secretary for Wales, Jo Stevens, resigned on Friday, saying she believed leaving the EU would be “a terrible mistake”.



Tulip Siddiq resigned as shadow early years minister on Thursday, saying she intended to vote in line with her strongly pro-remain constituents in Hampstead and Kilburn.

A group of 19 backbench Labour MPs, led by Heidi Alexander, have tabled what is known as a reasoned amendment to the bill, which if passed would see it thrown out at its second reading in the Commons.



Alexander said she was acting because she was “worried that the country is sleepwalking our way out of the single market – that would be disastrous”.

MPs will have five days over the next two weeks to debate and scrutinise the bill. The second reading debate will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday, with the Commons sitting until midnight on the first day. There will then be a vote on the second reading.

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The following week, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday will be set aside for the committee and report stages and for the third reading. The bill will then go to the Lords.

Corbyn’s intention is to subject Labour MPs to a three-line whip – the strictest variant of party discipline – for the third reading vote even if no amendments have been secured.

Speaking on the Peston programme, Corbyn said he was confident some of the party’s amendments would be passed.



“What we have already forced the prime minister to do is to produce a white paper she didn’t want to [produce],” he said. “We’ve already forced her to concede there’s going to be a vote in parliament.

”We think we can win a number of quite crucial amendments on this.”

Asked if he would expect Labour MPs to vote for the bill even if no amendments succeeded, Corbyn said: “What I have said is, we would vote to implement article 50, we wouldn’t block it. I’ve made that very clear.”

Corbyn’s position could lead other Labour frontbenchers to resign. Clive Lewis, the shadow business secretary, has agreed to vote for the bill at the second reading, but has made clear to his local party that if Labour amendments are not accepted he will vote against it.

The Labour leader is facing some rebellion from ordinary members over his article 50 position. More than 3,000 members of constituency parties around the country have signed a critical open letter to Corbyn about his handling of Brexit.

It says: “While we may differ in our beliefs and feelings with regards to your leadership, we are nevertheless united in our belief that you and your leadership team have made the wrong call on the party’s policy on Brexit.”

Speaking earlier on BBC1’s The Andrew Marr Show, the chief secretary to the Treasury, David Gauke, said the article 50 bill could be amended, but that this seemed unlikely.

“I would be surprised,” he said when asked if the government might accept any amendments. “I think there are 70 or so amendments that have been tabled. There will be an opportunity to debate those. But we have to remember what this legislation is about … This is simply about, do we respect the result of the referendum?”