JC in The Times:
Theresa May’s government shows every sign of crumbling before our eyes. The Conservative manifesto has been mostly junked. Cabinet resignations follow each other in quick succession. There have been so many policy U-turns, no one is quite sure which way the government is facing. And when it comes to Brexit, confusion and division risk dangerously weakening Britain’s hand. The Brexit talks are at a crucial point. The country cannot afford the crippling splits and indecision at the heart of government.
On Tuesday the misnamed EU withdrawal bill, which is in reality an undemocratic government power-grab, comes back to parliament. Its return follows weeks of damaging delay. That has only added to the sense of chaotic dithering around the Conservatives’ approach to Brexit.
Nearly 17 months since Britain voted to leave the EU, we are still none the wiser as to what our future relationship with our biggest trading partners is going to look like.
The government can’t give a lead because the cabinet is split down the middle, spending more time negotiating with each other than with the EU. That gives the whip hand to grandstanding EU negotiators. One week the home secretary says a “no-deal” exit from the EU would be “unthinkable”. The next week the Brexit secretary insists “no deal must be an option”.
For the market fundamentalist throwbacks in the Tory cabinet, “no deal” is in reality a strategy, not a negotiating tactic. It is the extreme version of the wider Conservative intention to use Brexit as a device to drive down wages and conditions, deregulate consumer and environmental protections and slash corporate taxation in a destructive race to the bottom.
“No deal” would risk a jobs meltdown. As Boris Johnson made clear in his fantasy Brexit manifesto, the real aim is not only to reinforce the existing economic system’s ballooning inequalities and growing insecurity but also to put them on steroids. Rather than arguing for ways to undermine rights, protections and freedoms at home, the foreign secretary should be focusing on his day job and acting to promote international peace, security and the interests of our citizens abroad.
Instead he’s doing the opposite. After a string of offensive gaffes, including declaring that the Libyan city of Sirte could become another Dubai once they “clear the dead bodies away”, he has now put the future liberty of the British citizen Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe under serious threat because of his incompetent bungling. He should have the decency to say clearly and unequivocally that he was wrong and do everything possible to ensure that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe doesn’t pay the price for his cavalier mistake.
In the interests of both the government and the country, the prime minister should act to ensure the foreign secretary can cause no further damage to our citizens abroad. But Theresa May appears to be in no position to do anything of the kind. She shows every sign of being in office but not in power.
Two weeks ago the prime minister told MPs that transitional Brexit arrangements will not be negotiated until the terms of the final deal with the EU have been agreed. This was apparently aimed at keeping the “no-deal” Tories on board. But such Alice in Wonderland posturing makes no sense and only adds to the confusion. It’s precisely because we are still so far from a final deal that transitional arrangements are now essential.
Both the Confederation of British Industry and the Trades Union Congress argue that the longer we delay agreeing transitional terms, the more job-creating investment decisions will be deferred and the greater the risk of some companies leaving Britain altogether at the cost of thousands of jobs.
The Conservatives’ internal divisions are driving their approach to Brexit. Labour is instead making the case for a jobs-first Brexit that prioritises full access to European markets, guarantees the rights of EU citizens, uses powers returned from Brussels to invest and upgrade Britain’s economy and protects and extends workers’ and consumer rights and environmental standards.
Labour wants to see a new co-operative relationship with Europe. We have proposed a time-limited transitional deal on the same basic terms as now. Such arrangements will not frustrate Brexit but will make possible a Brexit that puts jobs and living standards first.
The prime minister is too weak even to make this obviously necessary commitment. The government’s disarray across the board is painful to watch: from the public sector pay cap to tuition fees, Tory ministers are flip-flopping and incoherent.
When we brought these pressing public issues to the House of Commons, along with social care and universal credit, the government was forced to concede that it did not have a majority and refused to vote.
The parliamentary floundering continued last week when the government refused to publish its own “Tory Brexit” economic impact assessments for 58 sectors of the economy. Labour had to win a vote in parliament using an ancient parliamentary procedure to force their release. After the Speaker demanded that ministers follow the will of parliament and publish the papers, the government claimed they don’t actually exist as previously described.
After so many U-turns no one is sure which way the Tories are facing The Conservatives have wasted months evading scrutiny to keep the public in the dark. So what are they hiding and why?
The truth is this government currently has no plan or vision for a post-Brexit economy beyond a few TTIP-style deregulation and investor protection deals with the Trump administration.
That is deeply alarming. A bad Brexit deal risks making weaknesses in our economy — low investment, low productivity and low pay – even worse. Brexit should instead give us the impetus to tackle our productivity crisis, which is making our country poorer.
The answer lies in investment: in infrastructure, new technologies and people. That’s why the chancellor should use his autumn budget to change direction and invest for long-term growth. Labour has already pledged to create a national transformation fund to upgrade our country’s infrastructure and a national investment bank with a network of regional development banks to provide patient finance for firms.
And we are committed to building a national education service to ensure that, where skilled jobs are created and new technologies adopted, there are people able to fill them and operate them.
Continuing uncertainty about the government’s approach to Brexit is now the biggest risk facing our country. The prime minister must end the confusion, take on the “no-deal” extremists in her government and back a jobs-first Brexit for Britain.
This government is failing to act on the critical issues of the day: the tax scandal highlighted by the Paradise Papers, the growing housing crisis, falling pay and living standards, and the botched rollout of Universal Credit that threatens to make millions worse off.
If she can’t get a grip, she should move out of the way and let Labour deliver a Brexit that works for the many, not the few. It is time for Theresa May to stop dithering and decide: whether to govern or go.
