About 60 Labour MPs are preparing to defy any party order to vote in favour of triggering article 50, with frontbenchers expected to resign if a three-line whip is enforced.



Party sources said no decision would be made before the government’s legislation was published, but several Labour MPs said they were certain a three-line whip, which is used for the most critical votes, would be imposed on MPs.

Jeremy Corbyn has made clear that Labour MPs would be asked to vote for triggering article 50 because his party does not want to block the Brexit process.

A bill is expected to come before parliament later this week after the supreme court ruled that MPs and peers must have a vote before the two-year formal process for leaving the EU begins. The SNP, the Liberal Democrats and Green MP Caroline Lucas have also said they would vote against article 50 legislation, as has the former Conservative chancellor Ken Clarke.

Several shadow ministers whose constituencies are in areas which are strongly pro-remain have publicly said they would also vote against when a bill is introduced.

Catherine West, the shadow foreign minister who was elected MP for Hornsey and Wood Green in 2015, said: “Theresa May has allowed the hardline Brexiters within her own party and the rightwing media to dictate the form of Brexit, discounting the views of the 48% who voted to remain and more importantly disregarding the national interest.

“In Hornsey and Wood Green we secured the highest remain vote in the UK with 81.5%. The best way I can represent my constituents, and indeed protect our national interest, is to vote against invoking article 50.”

Tulip Siddiq, the shadow minister for early years, said she would vote in line with her strongly remain-leaning Hampstead and Kilburn constituents.

In the chamber for the statement on Article 50. My vote will reflect the views of my constituents. I'm in Parliament to represent them. — Tulip Siddiq (@TulipSiddiq) January 24, 2017

Owen Smith, the Labour MP for Pontypridd who challenged Corbyn for the leadership last summer, said he saw the issue as a defining political moment for his generation of politicians as well as the country.

“I have reached the decision that whatever the impact on my career, however difficult it may be to swim against the Brexit tide, I cannot, in all conscience, stand by and wave through a course of action that I believe will make our people poorer and our politics meaner,” he wrote in an article for the Guardian.

“I cannot vote to trigger article 50 on the wing and a prayer that Brexit will do as the prime minister says, and make Britain a fairer, more prosperous and equal society. Because I do not believe that is true.”

Neil Coyle, whose Bermondsey and Old Southwark constituency was also strongly remain, echoed those concerns, saying he fundamentally disagreed with the decision to leave the EU, regardless of the referendum result.

Coyle said finance sector jobs in his constituency were already being lost. “London is losing out as a result now. More damage will come as the implications of Brexit expand,” he said.

“For this reason, I am one of the growing number of Labour MPs who will not vote to trigger article 50. I made a simple promise in the May 2015 general election that I would not support in parliament anything that would harm people in my constituency.”

He said Labour whips should allow MPs to vote in line with their constituents, adding: “Labour should not sign up to the economic damage the government is pursuing. May is drafting her economic suicide note and Labour must not sign it with her.”

He said Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, could “pursue a whipped abstention for Labour MPs or could cause every person who loses work or other opportunities between now and the next election to hold Labour culpable in their misfortune”.

Other backbenchers including Ben Bradshaw, David Lammy and Daniel Zeichner also said they would not back a Brexit bill. Bradshaw, a former secretary of culture, sport and media, tweeted:

I will not vote to destroy jobs and prosperity in #Exeter & the wider South West with a hard Tory #brexit. I will vote against #Article50. — Ben Bradshaw (@BenPBradshaw) January 24, 2017

Chris Leslie, a former shadow chancellor, said: “I believe Theresa May’s approach to Brexit will cause harm to our economy, place barriers for businesses who will find it harder to sell goods and services, and leave us with less growth and fewer decent job prospects than if we choose a different approach.

“I am not, therefore, inclined to vote in favour of a bill that would endorse the government’s ‘hard Brexit’ strategy. I will instead work with MPs from across all parties to amend and significantly improve any article 50 legislation, so that parliament gives a steer to the government to salvage our participation in the single market and avoid the UK economy falling off an economic cliff edge in 2019.”