Shadow Brexit secretary accuses May of pulling the vote in order to ‘run the clock down’

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The shadow Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer, has said the prime minister is highly unlikely to secure the meaningful changes to her Brexit deal that will be necessary for it to pass the House of Commons in January.

Opening a three-hour debate on the government’s decision to ramp up no-deal planning, Starmer said that without such changes “the majority in this house are not likely to support the prime minister’s deal, whenever it is put”.

Starmer accused the prime minister of pulling the vote in order to “run the clock down” and playing up the risks of no deal in the hope of convincing MPs to back her.

“I really think it is the duty of the government and the PM to stand at the dispatch box and rule out no deal,” he said.

Labour is keen to show it is maintaining the pressure on Theresa May – despite pulling back from tabling a motion of no confidence in her government earlier this week.

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Demanding a three-hour debate is one of the tools at MPs’ disposal to challenge the government, if they feel measures are being railroaded through without scrutiny.

Downing Street announced on Tuesday, after a three-hour cabinet meeting, that the government would “ramp up” no-deal preparations dramatically – with 3,500 troops on standby, and an extra £2bn set aside across 25 Whitehall departments.

Some Labour MPs were left exasperated on Monday when Jeremy Corbyn opted not to table a full no-confidence motion in the government, which would have had to be debated and voted on in the Commons and could have led to a general election if it had been lost.

Instead, he chose a motion of censure criticising May – for which the government did not set aside time for parliament to debate. Starmer had been advocating a full-blown motion of no confidence; but others in the shadow cabinet, including Ian Lavery and Richard Burgon, felt the party should wait until it was sure of winning.

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The shadow housing secretary, John Healey, suggested on Tuesday that Labour would wait until after May’s deal has been rejected by MPs, before tabling a motion of no confidence.

Campaigners for a second Brexit referendum, including Streatham MP Chuka Umunna, have been urging Labour to get on with trying to engineer a general election in the hope that it would then allow the party to move on to advocating a “people’s vote”.

But one member of the shadow cabinet said fear of playing into the hands of those advocating a second referendum had made Corbyn more timid this week and claimed “Chuka paranoia” was one reason for the caution displayed by the frontbench.

Several senior Labour figures have expressed reservations about a second referendum in recent days, including the shadow education secretary, Angela Rayner, who said it would be seen as a betrayal by leave voters.

The SNP’s Commons leader, Ian Blackford, won the right for an SO24 debate on May’s Brexit deal on Tuesday, after the prime minister confirmed that MPs would not be given a vote on it until mid-January.

Several Conservative MPs, including Justine Greening and Nicky Morgan, have criticised the fact that MPs are about to break up for a recess of more than a fortnight, with Brexit still unresolved and just 100 days to go until Britain leaves next March.