Brexit bill reopens old wounds for UK Labour

British opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn. (AFP)

LONDON: The passage of a Brexit bill in parliament is reopening deep divisions among lawmakers in Britain’s opposition Labour party, as they struggle to reconcile their pro-European views with voter concerns over immigration.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn ordered his members of parliament to support the first stage of a bill on Wednesday empowering the government to begin EU negotiations, but 47 MPs rebelled — and a dozen others were absent.
Further rebellions are likely when the legislation returns to the House of Commons next week, if — as is likely — Labour fails to push through amendments seeking to ease the terms of the divorce from the European Union.
The disagreements threaten to further undermine Corbyn’s leadership, after the left-winger survived a failed bid to oust him by a majority of his more centrist MPs following the referendum vote in June.
But the divisions reflect wider problems in the Labour party, which has for years been balancing its liberal instincts with the concerns of many working-class voters about mass migration from the rest of the EU.
In the EU referendum, the vast majority of Labour MPs campaigned to remain in the 28-nation bloc, but two-thirds of their constituencies voted to leave.
“The party derives its support from two very different constituencies,” said Simon Lee, senior politics lecturer at the University of Hull.
He added: “In the metropolitan, university constituencies, the clear majority of the electorate voted in the referendum to remain.
“But the majority of the seats that Labour needs either to hold or to win, are constituencies which voted to leave.”
By refusing to block the Brexit process, Corbyn clearly has an eye on the latter — and an early sign of whether he is succeeding will come in a by-election later this month.
The anti-immigration, anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP) has high hopes of winning the Brexit-supporting seat of Stoke-on-Trent, held until now by Labour.
Among the Labour rebels on Wednesday were 10 members of Corbyn’s shadow cabinet and three whips — MPs who are meant to enforce party discipline — while four other members of his team resigned ahead of the vote.
One of his strongest supporters, Diane Abbott, has been criticized for missing the vote.
She complained of a severe migraine, but also represents a London constituency heavily opposed Brexit.
The New Statesman meanwhile reported that 7,000 party members have resigned since Corbyn announced his backing for the Brexit bill.
Even The Canary, a strongly pro-Corbyn news website, said it was a “colossal mistake” that “could sink his leadership.”
Corbyn has so far refused to discipline those who rebelled, postponing any decisions until next week.
Labour has pledged to fight to maintain access to Europe’s single market and protections on workers’ rights, particularly after Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May warned she was willing to leave the EU without a new trade deal in place.
But many MPs have warned ignoring the referendum would only encourage the anti-establishment feeling that helped drive the vote — and the election of Donald Trump in the United States.
“I won’t drive people toward Trump politics by ignoring them,” said Labour’s business spokesman Clive Lewis.
However, he threatened to rebel if Labour fails to amend the bill next week to prevent a “hard” Brexit.
His concerns were echoed by other Labour MPs.
“This is not an easy time to be a social democrat. We live in a time of surging nationalism and a growing instinct toward closed economies,” said Wes Streeting.
But he added: “I say to my party that if we want to be in government again and to create the world that we want to see, we must first engage with the world as it is.”