Party has six tests the deal must meet in order to gain support, shadow Brexit secretary insists

Keir Starmer has moved to reassure anxious Labour MPs that the shadow cabinet is prepared to vote against the government’s Brexit deal after Emily Thornberry appeared to suggest the agreement could be so vague her party might back it.

Parliament has been promised a meaningful vote on the withdrawal agreement and the shadow Brexit secretary has laid out six tests he says the deal must meet.

But Thornberry told a meeting at the Chatham House thinktank that the government was only likely to agree a vague divorce by October.

“If past evidence of the last few months is anything to go on, it’s going to be a blah, blah, blah, divorce,” she said.

Play Video 2:00 Emily Thornberry: It will be a 'blah, blah, blah' Brexit divorce – video

“It’s not going to make any decisions. It’s going to continue to kick things down the road. We don’t seem to have come to any difficult decisions at the moment.

“The difficulty is going to be with the meaningful vote in October, which we have secured, is that, what is it we are going to be agreeing on?”

Thornberry added: “We have our six tests. If you hold up blah, blah, blah, to six tests, you’ll probably pass it.”

Anti-Brexit Labour backbenchers seized on Thornberry’s comments as evidence key shadow cabinet figures could be paving the way for a vote in favour of May’s deal.

One told the Guardian that Starmer had expressed his exasperation – and promised to “sort it”. “People are furious with Emily,” he said.

As the backlash grew in Westminster, Starmer used an email update to all the party’s MPs on Wednesday night to state: “if these tests are not met, Labour will not support a withdrawal deal on those terms”.

The tests include delivering the “exact same benefits as we currently have as members of the single market and customs union?”, as well as asking: “Does it deliver for all regions and nations of the UK?”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Emily Thornberry’s comments provoked concern among anti-Brexit Labour MPs. Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi/The Guardian

Some shadow ministers are known to be concerned about the perception among pro-Brexit Labour voters that the party could try to “block Brexit”.

Chuka Ummuna, of campaign group Open Britain, said: “It is extraordinary and unacceptable that the shadow foreign secretary [Thornberry] seems to be suggesting that some ‘blah blah’ from the government will be enough to secure Labour’s support to write the government a blank cheque for Brexit.

“It’s an old-fashioned idea but it is the job of the opposition to hold the government to account and that is what our members expect to see rather than blase chat about ‘blah blah’ on the most important issue facing the country.”

A Labour source insisted: “Emily made clear, as we have done for more than a year now, that the government needs to deliver a deal which meets our six tests, in particular by explaining how we will maintain current arrangements on the Northern Ireland border, and ensure all UK firms maintain the current benefits of access to the single market and customs union. We await to see if we will get any substantive answers on those questions by the time of the vote in October.”



Thornberry’s remarks followed a story last week on the website Business Insider that suggested shadow trade secretary Barry Gardiner warned a private dinner in Brussels that voting against the deal could risk a no deal Brexit.

“Let’s look at the consequence of there being no deal: the UK will crash out of the EU,” he reportedly said – though he has subsequently suggested the context referred to the European parliament, which will also be given the opportunity to ratify the agreement.

The former shadow Northern Ireland secretary, Owen Smith, who was sacked last week after calling in the Guardian for a referendum on the final Brexit deal, said: “This is, in part, why I wrote the piece which led to my sacking last week. We are in danger of sleepwalking into supporting the Tories Brexit debacle.”

Labour is planning to try to amend the EU withdrawal bill in the House of Lords, to prevent the government from presenting the autumn vote as a choice between accepting the agreement it has reached with Brussels, and plunging out of the EU without no deal at all.

Starmer would like to see parliament given the opportunity to direct the government’s next move – including potentially sending Brexit secretary David Davis back to Brussels to reopen negotiations.

Meanwhile, Theresa May is mounting a whirlwind tour of the four nations of the United Kingdom with a promise to keep the country “strong and united”.

The prime minister’s whistlestop tour will take in a Scottish textile factory, a toddler group in Newcastle, a business roundtable in Barry and tea with a group of Polish citizens in London.

“One year until the UK leaves the EU and begins to chart a new course in the world, I am visiting all four nations of the Union to hear from people across our country what Brexit means to them,” she said.

“I am determined that as we leave the EU, and in the years ahead, we will strengthen the bonds that unite us, because ours is the world’s most successful union. The UK contains four proud and historic nations, but together we amount to so much more than the sum of our parts and our union is an enormous force for good.”