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Labour backbenchers have been unleashed to push strongly for rejoining the European Union, after the Prime Minister opened the door to reversing Brexit, during his Labour conference speech and a pro-European statement in Parliament on Monday.
In a backbench debate on Monday evening in Parliament, Labour MPs responded to the shift by calling for Britain’s return to the EU.
So many Labour MPs turned up to call for more integration that the chair imposed a four-minute limit on speeches. Usually these Westminster Hall debates struggle to attract more than a handful of speakers.
Just three MPs defended the status quo: Sir Bernard Jenkin (Con), Danny Kruger (Reform) and the shadow Conservative minister Mike Wood.
And while the minister present did not go further than the PM, Labour backbenchers went considerably beyond the Government line. The Prime Minister has said all options are on the table for the UK’s future relationship with Europe – after the next election – and pro-EU MPs have seized on the momentum.
The debate followed an official petition to rejoin the EU with 111,687 signatures.
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Tony Vaughan (Lab, Folkestone and Hythe) told the hall that the terms of Brexit were “never defined” and served the interests of countries like Russia that want “Britain’s influence weakened and Europe fractured”.
It follows the Prime Minister raising concerns about Russian interference in the 2016 referendum, with Andy Burnham saying it was “inconceivable” that President Putin had not sought to meddle in the campaign.
Vaughan described post-Brexit trade bureaucracy as “nail after nail being hammered into a coffin” for Britain’s economy.
Fellow Labour backbencher Deirdre Costigan said Leave voters were “bombarded with lies” during the referendum, as she welcomed the PM’s new national centre for information defence.
Afzal Khan MP, a former member of the European Parliament, said Brexit “has been a disaster for young people”.
And Labour’s Tulip Siddiq said her local flower seller’s tulip prices have been forced up 50% since 2020, apparently due to Brexit. Tulip’s tulip concerns were picked up on with some amusement.
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Another Labour MP, Rachael Maskell, called for a deliberative citizens’ process to shape “the next manifesto commitment”, though minister Mark Ferguson would not commit to it.
While Ben Coleman (Lab) welcomed the PM’s readiness to look at “a customs union, a single market and full membership” of the EU, he called for a manifesto pledge to negotiate joining, followed by a referendum on the deal: “In 2016, people voted on an idea… Next time, they would vote on a deal.”
Stella Creasy MP, who is strongly pro-EU, did call for some realism, noting that 21 accession countries took an average of nine years to join the bloc.
But Daniel Zeichner MP argued that EU ministers “want us back”, adding: “We are Europeans, and we should be in.”
Meanwhile Dr Scott Arthur issued a pointed jab that “politicians who take bribes from Russia” may have benefited from Brexit, adding “that person is in jail” – a reference to former Wales Reform leader Nathan Gill, currently serving prison time over bribery offences relating to his time as an MEP.
Peter Swallow summed up the mood – that Parliament is “catching up to the conversations” that never went away in the country.
‘A Clear Answer’: Russia Intervened in the Brexit Vote
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has broken ten years of establishment omertà over Putin’s plot to get Britain out of the EU, reports Peter Jukes
Pro-Europe opposition parties agreed. Lib Dem Paul Kohler said Brexit was backed by “Putin, Trump and the Member for Mar-a-Lago and Moscow” but criticised the PM for being “wedded to his predecessor’s red lines” on not joining the customs union or single market in this Parliament.
Commenting on troubles faced by businesses in his seat due to Brexit bureaucracy, he said “stale bread and dead flowers” were “a fitting epitaph to Brexit.”
The Scottish National Party’s Pete Wishart offered a critical note on the Government, noting the PM’s statement “did not talk about rejoining”.
But Carla Denyer of the Greens welcomed that “we have now heard the PM confirm that there was Russian interference in the referendum.”
And independent MP Iqbal Mohamed called Brexit “the biggest fraud in the history of Britain.”
Brexit’s Few Defenders
Reform’s Danny Kruger was one of the few pro-Brexit voices, claiming that goods exports have suffered not due to Brexit but energy policy and remaining alignment with the EU.
He blamed “poor Government choices, made under the Conservatives and Labour” for Brexit’s failures. Kruger left before the end of the debate.
Cornish Labour MP Perran Moon called Conservative MP Jenkin and Reform’s Kruger “two King Cnuts shouting at the sea”. The minister later joked about the need to enunciate that one carefully.
For the Conservatives, shadow minister Mike Wood MP said the petition asks MPs to “casually” overturn “the largest democratic vote in British history on a Monday afternoon”.
