Labour Must Speed Up Backing U.K. Staying in EU, McDonnell Says

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Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn should move more quickly to make remaining in the European Union the party’s official position before a possible general election, Labour’s treasury spokesman John McDonnell said.

While Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, has for months been calling for the party to adopt the policy, or seek a second referendum, Corbyn has so-far refused to commit. Instead he favors pushing for an election and is seeking consensus from his party rank and file on Brexit ahead of the annual conference in late September. McDonnell wants to quickly implement a policy to distance Labour from the Conservatives, who are pushing to leave.

With Conservative leadership front-runner Boris Johnson refusing to rule out leaving the EU without a deal and some members of Parliament vowing to stop him, there’s a rising possibility of nationwide elections in September or October to break the deadlock. Labour’s support base isn’t united on whether to leave or remain.

“We haven’t been able to get the deal we wanted so I would vote remain, I would want to campaign for remain,” McDonnell told BBC TV. “We need to decide early and get on with it.”

Meanwhile Conservatives from different wings of the party played down the possibility of an election this fall, just two or three months after the new prime minister assumes office. Johnson supporter Dominic Raab told Sky an election would be “unlikely” while Justice Secretary David Gauke, who would not back a no-deal Brexit, told the BBC that if the party held elections before Brexit is resolved there would be a “ceiling” on its support.

As 180,000 members of the Conservative Party start to return postal ballots deciding the party’s next leader, Johnson insisted he’s “not bluffing” about delivering a no-deal Brexit by Oct. 31. He told the Sunday Telegraph EU leaders “have to look deep into our eyes and think my God, these Brits are actually going to leave. And they’re going to leave on those terms.”

Even if Johnson, or rival contender Jeremy Hunt, decides to pursue a no-deal Brexit if any further negotiations with the EU fail, British parliamentarians are examining ways to block it.

Conservative Sam Gyimah, who supports holding a second referendum on Brexit, said there were 30 or more Conservative lawmakers who would back “legislative options” to avoid no-deal and look to “create options” so that “no deal isn’t the only option we face on October 31.” Separately Gauke agreed there are a “sizeable number” of MPs talking about options to block no-deal.

His Tory colleague Dominic Grieve said he is examining ways of amending a bill on Northern Ireland to block no-deal, which is being debated in Parliament Monday.

“Northern Ireland and Brexit go very closely together,” Grieve told BBC radio on Sunday. “The chances are that if Brexit goes through as no-deal Brexit, it’s going to be the end of the Northern Ireland union with the United Kingdom, with serious political consequences flowing from it. So that’s a bill which is a perfectly legitimate place to start looking at how one might make sure how a Brexit deal is fully debated before it takes place.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Kitty Donaldson in London at kdonaldson1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, James Amott

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