Labour must not support Tories’ Hard Brexit 

Please see below a model emergency motion for CLPs to consider.

If your CLP is not in a position to agree an emergency motion prior to the 30 December, when Parliament meets to discuss the deal, your CLP Officers may wish to send a letter instead.  If officers are unable to send a letter they could individually contact the PLP and Party leadership to urge them to respect Labour’s Manifesto commitments, Labour Conference decisions and Keir Starmer’s six tests.

To Chair PLP (John Cryer MP), Leader (Keir Starmer), our MP (in Labour constituencies) and the General Secretary (David Evans)

This CLP believes that Labour should adhere to its Conference decisions and Manifesto commitments not to support a Tory Hard Brexit.

We note:

• the Trade and Cooperation Agreement the Tories have negotiated with the EU ‘does not provide adequate protections for British manufacturing, our financial services, creative industries or workplace rights.’ (Keir Starmer);
• it will have a major negative impact on GDP (Shadow Chancellor, Anneliese Dodds)
• it ‘won’t protect jobs and puts hard-won workers’ rights on the line’ (TUC General Secretary, Frances O’Grady);
• it gives the green light to deregulation and leaves our NHS at the mercy of a trade deal with the US – policies Labour committed to oppose in our 2019 Manifesto;
• it is a Tory Hard Brexit – that Labour Conference agreed in 2019 to oppose ‘using all necessary and available means’;
• and it does not satisfy Keir Starmer’s six tests – he set out for Labour as Shadow Brexit Secretary.

We believe Labour should not support this Tory Hard Brexit agreement. To support it would undermine both Labour’s and Keir Starmer’s credibility. It would assist the Tories and Labour would be blamed, quite rightly, by voters for the negative consequences of the agreement we had voted for. Supporting the Tories would also help the SNP in May’s Scottish Parliament elections.

Accordingly, this CLP calls on Labour MPs not to vote for the Tories’ Trade and Cooperation Agreement with the EU.

For your information, the following are the six tests that Keir Starmer set out for an acceptable agreement with the EU.

1. Does it ensure a strong and collaborative future relationship with the EU?
2. Does it deliver the ‘exact same benefits’ as we currently have as members of the Single Market and Customs Union?
3. Does it ensure the fair management of migration in the interests of the economy and communities?
4. Does it defend rights and protections and prevent a race to the bottom?
5. Does it protect national security and our capacity to tackle cross-border crime?
6. Does it deliver for all regions and nations of the UK?

Keir Starmer’s tests 2, 3 and 4 have clearly not been satisfied. A thorough reading of the 1,200 plus pages of the agreements may well reveal that the other three tests also have not been satisfied.