Last night the government’s flagship points-based immigration bill cleared the final parliamentary hurdle to become law – by a majority of 104 – ensuring free movement will cease when the Transition Period comes to an end. Naturally, not a single Labour MP voted for it…
It’s now more crucial than ever for Parliament to expedite putting in place all necessary legislation for post-Brexit Britain, as yesterday also marked the last possible opportunity for Britain to request an extension to the transition period. As promised by the Government, yesterday’s deadline under Article 132 of the Withdrawal Agreement came and went without such a request, meaning Britain is now committed by international treaty to become fully independent on 31st December 2020.
If he wasn’t having to deal with a deadly global pandemic, this year would be going pretty well for Boris…
A massive U-turn from their 2017 manifesto…
Strangely it didn’t look like Laura Pidcock get the message, refusing seven times to say whether Labour would continue free movement. What could it be about her overwhelmingly Leave voting constituency that made her unable to answer..?
Labour have officially killed another one of their Brexit promises today, they will be formally whipping their MPs to vote for Nick Boles’ ‘Common Market 2.0’ plan tonight. Common Market 2.0 is not a new plan, it’s just a new label stuck on the tired old can of full membership of the Single Market and Customs Union. Which Boles used to say was “the worst of all worlds, neither in nor out, with no power to influence what the EU does and no freedom to do something different”…
Despite the clever spin put on it, Common Market 2.0 does not get the UK out of all the commitments of the EEA/Single Market, including free movement of people, ECJ oversight and large financial contributions. Something which Nick Boles also clarified in the past – while lecturing others about honesty…
As Labour’s 2017 manifesto said in black and white: “Freedom of movement will end when we leave the European Union”. Are there any manifesto commitments on Brexit that Labour haven’t broken yet?
The new hope of ultra-Remainers expressed by Blair, Clegg, Adonis et al is that the EU will suddenly change its mind and reform free movement, and thus Britain will be able to stay in the EU. Patrick Wintour in the Guardian speculates optimistically that “if Angela Merkel is re-elected on 24 September, she may… show a new flexibility and might support the idea of an emergency brake on migration”. You don’t need to be David Cameron to laugh at that one – EU correspondents from the Sunday Times and Politico know it ain’t gonna happen:
Ain’t gonna happen:”if Merkel is re-elected, she may show a new flexibility and support the idea of an emergency brake” #Brexit https://t.co/aXcCRzxE2N
— Matthew Karnitschnig (@MKarnitschnig) September 11, 2017
Extremely unlikely https://t.co/aFVXxwVxVa
— Bojan Pancevski (@bopanc) September 11, 2017
The doomed focus on free movement reform also shows Remainers still don’t understand the referendum result. Polls have shown Leave voters were motivated more by sovereignty than immigration – how would reforming free movement and staying in the EU honour voters’ instructions to take back control of laws, money and trade? It wouldn’t and it ain’t gonna happen anyway…
As Guido reported this morning the Tories are all over the place on Brexit, though it’s worth looking at Labour’s shambles as well. On Monday Barry Gardiner and John McDonnell disagreed about staying in the single market. Today Rebecca Long-Bailey amusingly described the single market as a “moot point” and suggested she supports the continuation of free movement:
“We accept the fact that if we are going to have impediment-free access to the single market then there will have to be some element of free movement.”
Labour’s manifesto position, outlined by Corbyn during the campaign was: “clearly the free movement ends when we leave the European Union.” Does Becky speak for herself or the Shadow Cabinet?
