Image by Sophie J Brown (CC-BY-SA-3.0)
It was entirely predictable – at some stage or other the Labour leadership would have to take a side in the Brexit debate and the internal party splitting would start.
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First -just to get things moving, the cost of EU elections. Unless there's some sort of weird double accounting going on, or my maths is completely kaput, it seems that the government order covering the maximum amount of money that can be spent on these upcoming and completely unnecessary EU elections, is a tad over £157,000,000!
All for an election the powers-that-be say they don't want – but we all know different, don't we? As those elections are a necessary element for keeping the UK in the EU.
But there are another couple of reasons why we will have those elections.
There's the re-apportionment of some UK MEP seats to other countries, as well as an overall reduction in seat numbers from the maximum allowed under the treaties of 751 down to 705, if Brexit had occurred.
As the EU election period has already started, how would that reduction and reapportionment be achieved, if we dropped out a few days before the actual vote? Or if we dropped out a few months after the vote?
And something else to consider is all those EU27 nationals getting ready to go to the ballot boxes in the UK, would suddenly find their treaty rights to vote stripped from them at the last moment. The chances of this happening would surely never have been signed up to by Eurocrats, without some sort of reassurance from Theresa May?
So I find it strange that some commentators are still saying they can be cancelled while people like Nick Ferrari get hot under the collar about holding them.
The establishment requires these elections take place, the big money requires these elections take place, most MPs want these elections to take place and most of our House of Lords want them as well.
So how can it be otherwise – we are now going to have them – whatever Brexiteers and ordinary people feel about it.
But maybe it would have been different, if so many people hadn't just walked off the battlefield on the 24th June 2016 and had stuck around to reinforce the success of the Brexit vote.
Now to Jeremy Corbyn and his Labour Party.
Many in the Labour Party are unhappy that having a second EU referendum does not appear in their party's literature for the European parliament elections.
The leaflet, says the Independent, which it seems was drawn up by Labour HQ without consulting ministers or MEP candidates, says that Labour will get a better Brexit deal with the EU than the Tories will, but it does not mention any sort of referendum or confirmatory vote.
"MPs said the leaflet had caused 'complete meltdown'," says the Independent, "with supporters of a Final Say vote "utterly furious" at what they suggested was an attempt by Labour staff to undermine the party's policy."
And one Labour MP told the Independent:
"People went into complete meltdown and were utterly furious at what appears to be yet another attempt by a small cabal of disgruntled officials to undermine the entire rest of the party, with no reference to the very candidates these leaflets are meant to promote."
And the Sun reports a senior shadow ministerial source as saying that Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit Secretary "…is absolutely furious about the leaflet. He knows very well that it doesn’t reflect the party’s policy, the views of the membership or our candidates. It will have to change."
This always had to happen. As soon as Jeremy Corbyn was forced to put down in writing exactly what his stance on the EU and Brexit was, losing support from a chunk of his party was always going to be the result.
Now, by ignoring the second referendumers in his party, which we all know actually means the Remainers in his party, you could be forgiven for thinking he will keep his Leave element fully on board.
But I would argue that, if you think Theresa May's Withdrawal Agreement treaty is a surender document, then anything Corbyn comes out with would be surrender plus plus plus!
Then there's the matter of the Labour conference vote to hold a second referendum.
So I don't think he will be convincing the Leavers in his party support base anytime soon that he can deliver any sort of meaningful Brexit.
He's as stuck as Theresa May is, the only difference, is that not being in power and having to make the decisions thus far has acted as a shield. But the EU elections and the requirement to produce a policy document has stripped that shield away.
Labour's chances in the local and European elections next month just took a nose-dive!
So, what do you think? – Please share and comment – and thank you for watching.
Sources:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2019/886/contents/made
