Vote Corbyn, Stop Brexit: How Labour Plans to Take On Johnson

(Bloomberg) -- Top officials in Britain’s main opposition Labour Party are preparing a dramatic policy to campaign to reverse the 2016 Brexit vote and keep the U.K. inside the European Union, if a snap election is held in the months ahead.

Labour’s manifesto for an election is being drafted already and is likely to promise another referendum on EU membership with the party campaigning for remain, people familiar with the matter said.

The party plans a summer-long campaign against new Prime Minister Boris Johnson to capitalize on public fears over the impact the no-deal Brexit he’s threatening would have on jobs and state-run services such as health care.

While it’s yet to be agreed by Labour’s ruling authorities, the pledge to remain would be rolled out if Johnson is forced into an emergency poll because he can’t get his Brexit plan through a deadlocked Parliament, said the people, who asked not to be named discussing confidential matters.

Polarization

Turning Labour into the anti-Brexit party would complete the polarization of U.K. politics and the fact it is on the cards highlights how unstable Britain’s political situation is. The prospect of an election -- and then a second Brexit referendum -- leaves businesses facing many more months or even years of uncertainty.

Three years after the U.K. narrowly voted to leave the EU in a referendum, the country is no closer to reaching a negotiated divorce settlement that’s acceptable to both its own Parliament and the bloc.

As time runs out before the Oct. 31 deadline for exiting the bloc, Johnson is hardening the government’s position and putting the country on a war footing for a no-deal rupture.

The new prime minister has packed his cabinet and top team with leading pro-Brexit campaigners and fired moderate ministers who oppose leaving the bloc without an agreement, because they fear the economic damage that would follow.

Yet with a majority in Parliament of just two, Johnson faces a huge battle to get any exit strategy he puts forward through a vote in the House of Commons. His predecessor Theresa May tried and failed three times to get her deal passed and was ultimately forced to resign.

Early Election

Parliamentary stalemate could force the U.K. into an early election, potentially this fall, one of the people said. The next scheduled vote is in 2022.

Labour’s manifesto position is not yet certain, but party officials now believe Johnson’s stance gives them a huge opportunity to cash in on public fears over the impacts of a messy break from the EU. The party’s proposed new stance will need to be approved by party leader Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet team, and other senior officials.

Corbyn plans to use the summer to launch a major assault on Johnson over his threat of a no-deal Brexit, one of the people said. That’s because the party’s private polling shows a large sector of voters fear Johnson will recklessly pursue that outcome before potentially putting the U.K.’s National Health Service up for sale in a hasty trade deal with the U.S.

Johnson has promised he will never open the state-run, free NHS up to US companies but Corbyn used the idea to attack him when the pair clashed face-to-face for the first time in Parliament on Thursday.

U.S. Trade Deal

Corbyn asked Johnson "to rule out the NHS being part of any trade deal" with Donald Trump’s administration, warning of fears that the U.K. would become a "vassal state to Trump’s America."

Until now, Labour has been wary of backing remain because of the risk of alienating pro-Brexit voters in its traditional heartlands in northern and central England. But recent party research suggest the losses would be far fewer than previously feared, according to one person involved in the process.

Labour has more to gain from cashing in on the fears of moderate voters in the center-ground over Johnson’s hardline stance towards leaving without a deal, the person said.

In Parliament on Thursday, Corbyn repeated Labour’s existing Brexit policy -- to oppose any deal Johnson’s Tory government puts forward and to campaign for remain if Johnson calls another referendum on a deal, or a no-deal split. "No deal means no steel, no car industry, food prices rising dramatically and huge job losses," Corbyn said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Tim Ross in London at tross54@bloomberg.net;Emma Ross-Thomas in London at erossthomas@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Flavia Krause-Jackson at fjackson@bloomberg.net, Alex Morales, Andrew Atkinson

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