UK Labour ditches plan for caretaker Corbyn

Conservative rebels and British Labour are preparing for a Brexit showdown next week amid a looming court battle.

Sir Keir Starmer, Britain's opposition Labour Party shadow secretary of state for exiting the European Union. Picture: Kirsty O'Connor/PA via AP

Britain’s Labour Opposition has shelved its plan to install its leader Jeremy Corbyn as prime minister in a last-ditch attempt to block a no-deal Brexit by uniting with Tory and other MPs opposed to a government push.

Legal moves to halt the Johnson Government’s plan to prorogue parliament are gathering pace, and Tory rebels plan to confront the Prime Minister next week, warning they will try to head off a no-deal Brexit and some demanding a second referendum.

A Labour vote of confidence in the Conservative government next week has been ditched in favour of trying to pass legislation forcing Boris Johnson to extend the provisions of Article 50 beyond October 31 in a climactic Brexit parliamentary showdown.

Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, told The Times that next week was “almost certainly the last chance” to stop a no-deal Brexit, and urged Conservative MPs and those from opposition parties to “leave their differences at the door” to unite against the government.

He also revealed a new Labour strategy to cast Mr Johnson as “Trumpian”, warning that the Prime Minister had opened up a new cultural divide in Britain and people had to ask themselves, “Whose side are you on?”

Mr Corbyn will seek to seize the initiative next week by taking the entire shadow cabinet for a meeting in Salford, followed by a speech setting out his strategy for the week ahead.

On Friday he wrote to all Labour MPs urging them to join protests against the government’s prorogation of parliament for five weeks.

“Whichever way people voted, to Leave or Remain, no one voted for Boris Johnson’s shutdown of democracy,” Mr Corbyn wrote.

“That is why public outrage to his actions has been so deafening, and why I am urging MPs to join protests opposing the shutdown and the Prime Minister’s threat of a no-deal Brexit.”

In a boost to Mr Corbyn this week, Ken Clarke, the former Tory chancellor, suggested that he could back a caretaker government led by Mr Corbyn.

He told Sky News: “As long as we were certain we could keep Jeremy under control, and he wouldn’t have the slightest chance of implementing any bits of his Labour manifesto, I hate to tell you I probably would. I probably would vote for him as long as I was sure he could do no harm.”

Former Conservative prime minister Sir John Major and Tom Watson have moved to join the legal attempt to block Mr Johnson’s plans to suspend parliament next month.

Sir John and the Labour deputy leader led a group of politicians that aims to support next week’s court challenge brought by Gina Miller, the businesswoman.

Two other Labour MPs, Jess Phillips and Alex Sobel, also announced on Friday that they would apply to intervene in the High Court action in support of Ms Miller.

Ms Miller’s case will be heard at the High Court in London on Thursday by Lord Burnett, the lord chief justice, the most senior judge in England and Wales. The Times understands that a slot has been allocated in the Supreme Court on Friday for an appeal to the country’s most senior judges against the ruling. Legal experts anticipate that whichever side loses the first hearing will appeal.

Sir John said yesterday: “If granted permission to intervene, I intend to seek to assist the court from the perspective of having served in government as a minister and prime minister, and also in parliament for many years.

“I promised that, if the Prime Minister prorogued parliament in order to prevent members from opposing his Brexit plans, I would seek judicial review of his action.”

Lord Garnier, QC, the former solicitor-general who is acting for Sir John, said that his team would apply to be allowed to join the main hearing.

Mr Watson said that the Prime Minister’s decision to prorogue was “an unprecedented affront to democracy”, adding: “The rights and freedoms of our citizens have been vandalised. This is an abuse of power that can and should be stopped.”

Labour’s deputy leader said he was instructing the same lawyers as the team representing Ms Miller. It is led by Lord Pannick, QC, the lawyer who successfully argued her case before the Supreme Court in 2016 over the government’s approach to Article 50, forcing ministers to seek MPs’ backing to trigger Brexit.

Tory rebels will tell the Prime Minister to his face that he has lost their trust before they try to take control of parliament and stop a no-deal Brexit.

Mr Johnson has agreed to meet the group, led by Philip Hammond, in his Commons office on Monday as they prepare to push through legislation that would require him to delay Brexit.

They have been infuriated by Mr Johnson’s decision to prorogue parliament for a month before a Queen’s Speech on October 14, a move that limits their chances of stopping no deal.

One Tory MP told The Times: “The message will be that he has lost our trust. We want him to get a deal but nobody believes him any more. We are worried that the plan is simply no deal and nothing but no deal.”

David Gauke and Dominic Grieve, both, like Mr Hammond, former cabinet ministers, are expected to attend the meeting, with others saying they will tell Mr Johnson that there should be a second Brexit referendum.

Yesterday Mr Johnson warned opposition MPs and Tory rebels that a “political generation” would not be forgiven by the public for stopping Brexit. He told Sky News: “The more our [EU] friends and partners think at the back of their minds that Brexit could be stopped, that the UK could be kept in by parliament, the less likely they are to give us the deal that we need.

“That’s why I really hope that MPs will allow the UK to do a deal and get ready for a no-deal Brexit. Everyone can see what the risk is now if we frustrate that mandate. If we stop the UK from leaving on October 31, if that’s what parliamentarians end up doing, it will do lasting damage to people’s trust in politics.”

Tory rebels have drawn up plans with Labour for parliament to sit next weekend as Jacob Rees-Mogg, leader of the Commons, dared them to try to change the law and block a no-deal Brexit. The MPs believe that they can seize control of business in the Commons and in a mere three days pass the legislation needed to force Mr Johnson to request an extension of the Article 50 process, under which Britain is due at present to leave the bloc on October 31.

The food industry says that it fears a “complete and catastrophic embargo” on exports in the event of a no-deal Brexit after the government admitted that it had yet to apply for regulatory clearance required for selling animal products to the EU.

“Listed status” is required for countries wishing to export live animals and animal products to the EU and can take as long as six months to secure.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said it was confident that the EU would agree that Britain meets the health and biosecurity standards but, with only nine weeks until the UK is due to leave, declined to say when officials might apply.

Listed status was granted shortly before Britain’s last Brexit deadline in April, five months after the government made an application to the European Commission. The status lapsed after the deadline was pushed back to October 31.

Industry groups said they were shocked that Mr Johnson’s government, which has presented itself as being better prepared for no-deal than Theresa May’s administration, has not made a new application.

Britain’s food and drink exports to the EU are worth pounds £22 billion. The biggest include chocolate, cheese, salmon and beef, all of which would be affected.

Allie Renison, head of EU and trade policy at the Institute of Directors, said: “Securing third-country listing should be a no-brainer, not least since so many agri-food exports wouldn’t be allowed into the EU without it. As the clock winds down, many of these things risk being caught up in the politics of negotiation so we are disappointed this hasn’t yet been squared away to put traders’ minds at ease.”

The car industry expressed renewed fears yesterday about a no-deal Brexit after Toyota announced that it would halt production at its Derbyshire plant on November 1. The Japanese carmaker said that the move was “part of our contingency activity”.

The Times