Theresa May has survived a vote of no confidence in parliament, but that does not hide the deep crisis facing her government. The defeat for her Brexit deal on Tuesday, by a majority of more than two thirds of MPs, is the biggest-ever defeat for a sitting government in parliament. That fact alone is an indication that we are living through unprecedented political developments.
After that massive humiliation, the parliamentary circus was suspended for twenty-four hours, while the Tories and Democratic Union Party saw off Labour’s no-confidence motion. Now that that is out of the way, cold reality is dawning again for the Conservative Party. After Tuesday’s vote, it was reported that the arch-Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg hosted a champagne party, including people like Boris Johnson. They have nothing to celebrate, of course, except the demise of their own party, notwithstanding its temporary ‘unity’ over Labour’s no-confidence motion.
Article 50 will be extended at least until July
Theresa May will now be put under enormous pressure to ditch some of her ‘red-lines’ to find some deal agreeable to parliament. It is no longer a question of “if”, therefore, but “when” Article 50 will be extended so that ‘Brexit day’ can be put back, at least until July 1st. The problem for May is that there is no majority for any deal whatsoever, without the backing of right-wing Labour MPs. Phillip Hammond has already reportedly told business leaders that Britain cannot leave the EU without a deal.
“Had she reached out to Labour MPs at the start of this process,” the Financial Times editorial argues, “she would have had a running chance of surviving the inevitable confrontation with the irreconcilables on the Tory right. With the clock running down to the March 29 exit date, she has few other options.”
Pressure to stay in a customs union or single market or both
Theresa May does not want a general election – why should she, given that so many Tory MPs would lose their seats and it will probably bring in the most radical Labour government since 1945? On the other hand, she is desperately fighting a rear-guard action against another referendum. The latest business group to come out for another vote is the FT City Network, a panel of more than 50 top executives, who have called for Article 50 to be extended and another referendum called. Even the Financial Times now puts it as a serious option: “There is no doubt that another plebiscite would be divisive. It could even reconfirm the original decision to Leave. But faced with an enduring stalemate in Westminster, it may well be time to go back to the people”.
The pressure is now on May, therefore, to reach out to Labour backbenchers and to cobble together some kind of Brexit deal that will leave the UK in the customs union, or the single market, or both. This is what is meant by the so-called ‘Norway’ option. May and her whips have to go to Labour right-wingers, because Jeremy Corbyn is refusing to deal with the Government unless they categorically rule out a no-deal Brexit. The difficulty for May and the Tory leadership is that whatever ‘soft-Brexit’ comes out of parliament in the next few weeks, it is likely to put the seal on serious splits in the Tory Party. One unnamed pro-Brexit minister was quoted in the Financial Times saying, “We’re heading for a permanent customs union and a split in the party.” Another pro-EU minister added, “What does it matter? We’re split already.”
Biggest cuts in living standards for generations
We completely agree with Jeremy Corbyn’s refusal to cooperate with Theresa May, but we think he is making a mistake in even putting conditions on it. We do not think the Labour Party should collaborate with the Tories under any circumstances.
The Labour Party must represent the interests of working class people – the overwhelming majority of the population – in the country and in parliament. The main issue facing the working class is not and has never been ‘Brexit’ as such: it is the squeeze on their living standards and the destruction of the services on which their daily lives depend.
It cannot be forgotten that this Tory government, since 2010, has presided over the biggest cuts in living standards for generations, while the fabulously rich have grown even more wealthy through tax cuts or just not paying taxes at all. The number of billionaires has increased exponentially in the last nine years, matching almost perfectly the increase in homelessness, rough-sleeping and poverty. Billionaires multiply as beggars do the same.
The real issues facing the working class
Public services that are essential to working people, like education and local government are starved of funds and face severe cut-backs. Hundreds of libraries and community centres are closing. The NHS is being rapidly fragmented and privatised at great cost, while there is allegedly no money to pay NHS staff a decent wage or to fill the tens of thousands of vacancies that exist for doctors and nurses. Young people cannot find affordable accommodation to rent or to buy, while £25bn a year goes in taxpayers’ money to greedy private landlords as housing benefit. Fourteen million are in poverty and millions more live from one wage packet to the next. Those in greatest need and on benefits have been impoverished and face far more insecurity and instability than ever before, thanks to Universal Credit and cuts. The very young, the very old, the sick and the disabled. No-one has been immune to the devastations wrought by this government.
These are the real issues that face working class people. There are no circumstances at all in which the Labour Party can collaborate or cooperate with a government that is responsible for these policies. The Tories’ is a government by the rich, of the rich and for the rich and Labour’s only aim must be to bring it down as soon as possible.
Theresa May will seek the support of right-wing Labour MPs
There are, unfortunately, many Labour MPs who are rooted in the ideas of Blairism and ‘New Labour’ who would be more than willing to work with the Tories over Brexit and it is to these MPs that the Tory whips will be scurrying in the next few weeks. One former Labour MP, John Woodcock, from Barrow, even refused to support the Labour motion of no-confidence. He is only articulating what many other right-wing Labour MPs are thinking. Another 71 Labour MPs and peers are urging Corbyn to support a second referendum. This group is overwhelming, if not exclusively, from the right-wing of the party: the same MPs and peers, like Peter Mandelson, who have been trying to undermine Jeremy Corbyn from the day he was elected in 2015.
As we have argued consistently, the right wing of the Labour Party have more in common with most Tory MPs than they have with socialism. Many of them would prefer the continuation of Tory rule to the election of a radical Labour government. They might make Sunday speeches about the shame of “austerity” and “poverty”, but when push comes to shove, their speechifying signifies little. Living in the parliamentary bubble, their social lives and connections identical to the Tories, many of them will happily turn their backs on the Labour Party in the so-called “national interest”. They cannot distinguish between what is good for working class people and what is good for the millionaire-class, as if it were all the same. Their fundamental philosophical and political outlook, in other words, is identical to Theresa May’s. Whilst we do not believe that Labour should work with the Tories on any issue at any time, it is almost certain in the coming weeks that there will be Labour MPs who are willing to do so.
Labour must call national and regional rallies to demand an election
The Labour leadership is right to demand a general election. But Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell should not restrict Labour’s actions to the timetable and procedures of parliamentary Brexit games. The Labour leadership should take a leaf out of books of the French gilets jaunes movement. Labour should organise for national demonstrations, not on Brexit, but on austerity, poverty, education, jobs and the NHS. Labour Party central office should be sending circulars to all regions and Constituency Labour Parties to organise local or regional demonstrations and rallies to demand an end to this iniquitous government. The leadership of the Party should make it clear that if any Labour MPs collaborate with Theresa May over the heads of the Labour leadership and the wishes of the party, then they should immediately be de-selected as candidates for the next election.
The Tories are in a deeper crisis now than at any time in modern history. It is not the job of the Labour Party to save their bacon for them. They are pauperising millions of people and deserve only to be thrown out of office and the sooner the better. The Tories might be in crisis, but working class people have their own crises to contend with. It is those issues – housing, the NHS, jobs, education, services, etc – that Labour must focus on vigorously and energetically in the coming weeks and months.
January 17, 2019
