Labour needs to join forces with Brexiteers to vote down Theresa May’s deal – and be one step closer to a leftist government This is a deal to suit the elite. It is not the best thing for our country

Theresa May’s Brexit deal is not just toast. It is burnt toast – scattering little black crumbs of bitterness into our public life even as she tries to cram it through parliament.

On the tabloid front pages, MPs are being called traitors, accused of “betraying the will of the people”, just because they want to amend a deal they were only allowed to read two weeks ago, and see a legal opinion the government tried to keep secret.

Europe, meanwhile, is being painted as a heartless bully, while poor old saintly Theresa May has “done her best”.

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This deal suits the elite

I want to put it as clearly as possible: these are all lies. When the Financial Times, Bank of England, Daily Mail, CBI and Institute of Directors all gang up to support something, you might think that the people who’ve been banging on about “the elite” for two years would twig. This is a deal to suit the elite. It sells out British sovereignty in return for a kind of access to Europe that will benefit only corporation and banks.

They’re in a panic because the deal is so bad no self-respecting Tory could support it, and as a result we are one step away from a Jeremy Corbyn government.

‘So what could MPs really do to put country before party?’

That’s why – though I disagree profoundly with the kind of Britain people like Jacob Rees-Mogg and Boris Johnson want to create – I want Labour politicians to march through the lobby with them on Tuesday night to stop May’s deal.

Forget the hysteria – the will of the people is expressed in parliament alone. If you don’t like it, it’s not just a bunch of MPs you have to replace but our constitutional monarchy, which has lasted 350 years.

And on Tuesday night, the will of the British people will – very likely – be expressed by voting down May’s deal. She stood in the June 2017 election on one offer: allow me to create a “strong and stable” government so I can do a deal and force it through. By Tuesday night she will have, on all counts, failed.

Putting country before party

As a Labour supporter I want, of course, the swiftest possible dissolution of parliament, a snap election and a government of the left. Realistically, given the mess we’re in, I would prefer Labour to ally with the SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Green Party, even if it had a commons majority, to come up with a workable form of Brexit and then force through radical democratic change. The prize would be a Tory party splintered into its liberal, conservative and authoritarian nationalist wings, losing power for a generation.

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But what we want is not always what we get. There’s been a lot of blather about “putting country before party” – so what could MPs really do to put country before party?

They should consider, first, the Norway Plus option being touted by a mixture of Tory grandees, the SNP and some Labour MPs. This means leaving the EU but staying in the single market. So it would only be sellable to Leave voters if, at the same time, we invoked the “emergency brake” procedure to suspend freedom of movement.

As a Remain voter I think that’s a decent compromise. It would create a filter on future EU migration: encouraging EU citizens to come and work in the NHS but discouraging the creation of migrant-only businesses whose entire raison d’etre is exploitation and undercutting wages of people already here.

Jeremy Corbyn’s front bench don’t like the Norway Plus idea because they believe, wrongly, that Europe might still offer us a bespoke deal delivering the “same benefits as the single market” – a phrase David Davis once used . I think, realistically, May’s two wasted years have diminished our options.

A Corbyn government could negotiate something better

A Corbyn government, especially if backed by the SNP and Plaid, has a much better chance to negotiate something better – because we would be trying to mirror European regulations, not flout them. But it would look a lot like the deal Norway already has, so I would prefer to be honest about that up front.

If she won’t accept Norway Plus, I expect Theresa May to be ousted, and her replacement to try and form some kind of National Unity government, with Labour rebels, around a softer deal.

If there is an election, Labour is duty-bound to say, as it has since June 2016: ‘the result of the old referendum obliges us to seek a deal’

Those wanting to know what happens next should watch the Gary Oldman movie Darkest Hour. In May 1940, after Britain faced military disaster in Norway, because the Tory government had dithered over fighting Hitler effectively, the prime minister Neville Chamberlain was replaced within days by Churchill. The Tory party, in danger of falling apart in office, was forced to form a government with Labour and the Liberals.

Though there is no chance of a Labour-Tory coalition, the machinations to remove May and install somebody more competent as a caretaker, might look a lot like the scenes in Darkest Hour.

Some people think May, in her own darkest hour, might be forced to call a second referendum. But there are no signs or whispers indicating this remotely. She would have to be replaced by someone like Amber Rudd for the people’s vote to happen, and then all parties – and all the media – would have their work cut out to defuse a popular revolt against what the right would stigmatise as the “theft” of Brexit.

We have to be heading for an election

With no Norway, no national government and no people’s vote, we have to be heading for an election. If it happens, Labour is duty-bound to say, as it has since June 2016: the result of the old referendum obliges us to seek a deal. Unless a second referendum is called, Corbyn cannot give in to those among its own members and MPs who would turn Labour into the exclusive party of Remain.

Labour has to offer something that the vast majority of decent people, whether they voted Leave or Remain, can unite around to limit the damage from this terrible episode. But to ensure victory, Corbyn should go to the polls promising that – once a new deal is done with Brussels – he will hold a “Final Say” referendum to ratify it.

We owe it to those who voted Leave to let them vote again on a deal done by different politicians and in a new situation. The likely outcome is so far from the right wing fantasy they were sold in 2016 that they might prefer the status quo.

If we can get an election in January, a renegotiated deal by April then – with a short postponement of Article 50 – the British people could have their final say in a conclusive second referendum as early as May 2019. That would allow this country to move on – which is what we desperately need to do.

@PaulMasonNews

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