The government must rule out a no-deal Brexit to end the uncertainty that is gripping business and local government services, a former head of the civil service has said.
Bob Kerslake also called for a fresh referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU, denying it would itself prolong the uncertainty even though it might take as long as a year to organise
Lord Kerslake told BBC Radio 4 parliament had no alternative on the basis that MPs did not support leaving the EU without a deal and there was no majority in the House of Commons for any single form of Brexit. He said
Where else do we go? A huge amount of quite unnecessary fear is being created among the public … The government can stop this now.
In a foreword to a People’s Vote campaign paper, the crossbench* peer also claimed diplomats would take years to negotiate Britain’s future relationship with the European Union, and accused Theresa May of preparing for a “blindfold Brexit” in which the substantive issues about the UK’s future had not been confronted. He writes:
On the central question of Brexit – how closely the UK will align with the EU on customs and rules – the political declaration merely says that there are ‘a spectrum of different outcomes’. That the country is being asked to embrace this uncertainty, or risk the disaster of a no-deal outcome, is extraordinary.
*This was amended, as it originally incorrectly said Labour
The shadow chancellor has been busy this morning. He was also on Sky News, where he claimed that the decision by Liverpool Wavertree constituency Labour party to subject MP Luciana Berger to a no confidence vote was unrelated to her criticism of Jeremy Corbyn over antisemitism.
McDonnell said:
If people are saying ‘look, we are expressing a vote of no confidence because Luciana has stood up and exposed anti-Semitism in our party’, that would be completely wrong and, of course, we would say that is not right.
Some local party members, the media, have asked her to deny that. She hasn’t been clear in that. So my advice really, on all of this, is for Luciana to just put this issue to bed. Say very clearly ‘no, I’m not supporting another party, I’m not jumping ship’.
And for local party members to sit down with Luciana and actually say ‘how can we support you? How can we work together in the future?’ And then overcome the present difficulties.
Luciana Berger Photograph: Jonathan Hordle/ITV/REX/Shutterstock
There is some scepticism about McDonnell’s take on reasons for the no confidence vote.
Jane Merrick (@janemerrick23)
Completely disingenuous of John McDonnell & others to say the Wavertree CLP motion has nothing to do with antisemitism when that’s clearly partly the motivation dressed up behind the breakaway claims.
This is pretty disingenuous of John McDonnell. The motions make no mention of a new party, but are about Luciana Berger criticising Jeremy Corbyn and, her critics claim, not doing enough to force an election or attack the Tories. https://t.co/C8QtFveanI
Good morning, Andrew is off today and on Monday so I’m stepping into his sizeable shoes for both days. Regulars will know that this blog attracts a lot of comments so if you want to get my attention it might be easiest to Tweet me.
The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, has said this morning that Theresa May must accept Labour’s five demands to get her Brexit deal through or else a second referendum will be necessary
If Theresa May said ‘I’ll sign up to Labour’s deal’ and we went to parliament, I think we would have a secure parliamentary majority.
But we’re at that stage now where we’re saying very clearly to everybody that people have looked over the edge of a no-deal Brexit and it could be catastrophic for our economy …In the national interest we have got to come together to secure a compromise, and then if we can’t do that, well yes, we have to go back to the people.
Only yesterday, Labour sources confirmed that the party’s official position continues to be that the option of a public vote is on the table but denied it would automatically move to back a second referendum if May rejected Jeremy Corbyn’s offer of support for a revised Brexit deal.
