This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jan/05/labour-leadership-jess-phillips-says-party-could-argue-to-rejoin-eu

The article has changed 4 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
Labour leadership: Jess Phillips says party could argue to rejoin EU Labour leadership: Jess Phillips 'would fight for UK to re-enter EU'
(about 7 hours later)
Birmingham Yardley MP opens up divide with fellow contender Keir Starmer, who wants party to move on Birmingham Yardley MP pledges to ‘take a stance on Brexit ahead of the next election’ if Labour leader
The Labour leadership contender Jess Phillips has said she would be prepared to argue for Britain to re-enter the European Union at the next general election, opening a divide with the shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer, who has insisted Labour must move on. Labour leadership contender Jess Phillips has said she could envisage campaigning to re-enter the European Union at the next general election, ahead of the contest kicking off in earnest on Monday.
Boris Johnson’s Brexit bill cleared its first parliamentary hurdle before Christmas, and the prime minister is expected to use his comfortable majority to carry it through parliament in time for Britain to leave the EU at the end of this month. With the UK poised to leave the EU at the end of this month, the approach of a future Labour leader to Brexit is one of the pressing questions Jeremy Corbyn’s successor will have to face.
When Phillips, who came third to Starmer in an early poll of Labour members last week, was asked on the BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show on Sunday whether Labour should become the party of rejoining the EU, she declined to rule it out. Phillips, who campaigned for remain and for a People’s Vote, said if she were leader, she would make a decision ahead of the next election about what stance to take, but had not changed her mind about the benefits of EU membership.
“You would have to look at what is going on at the time. What our job is, for the next three years, is to hold Boris Johnson to account for all the promises,” she said. “You would have to look at what is going on at the time. What our job is, for the next three years, is to hold Boris Johnson to account for all the promises,” she said on BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show.
“So if we are living in an absolute paradise of trade, and we’re totally safe in the world, and we’re not going to worry about having to constantly look to America for our safety and security, then maybe I’ll be proven wrong. But the reality is that if our country is safer, if it is more economically viable to be in the EU, then I will fight for that, regardless of how difficult that argument is to make.”“So if we are living in an absolute paradise of trade, and we’re totally safe in the world, and we’re not going to worry about having to constantly look to America for our safety and security, then maybe I’ll be proven wrong. But the reality is that if our country is safer, if it is more economically viable to be in the EU, then I will fight for that, regardless of how difficult that argument is to make.”
By contrast, Starmer, who has been one of the key figures pushing his party towards a remain position over the past 12 months, told Marr he believed the matter was closed. Her approach contrasted with the insistence of shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer, who was closely associated with Labour’s shift towards supporting a second Brexit referendum, that it is now time to move on.
“We are going to leave the EU in the next few weeks; and it’s important for all of us, including myself, to realise that the argument for leave and remain goes with it. We are leaving. We will have left the EU,” he said.“We are going to leave the EU in the next few weeks; and it’s important for all of us, including myself, to realise that the argument for leave and remain goes with it. We are leaving. We will have left the EU,” he said.
“This election blew away the argument for a second referendum, rightly or wrongly, and we have to adjust to that situation.”“This election blew away the argument for a second referendum, rightly or wrongly, and we have to adjust to that situation.”
He said debate would move on to Britain’s relationship with the EU, as a non-member. “The argument now is can we insist on that close relationship with the EU – close economic relationship but collaboration in other areas – and also, what is the framework now, for future trade relations?” Starmer said debate would move on to Britain’s relationship with the EU, as a non-member. “The argument now is can we insist on that close relationship with the EU – close economic relationship but collaboration in other areas – and also, what is the framework now, for future trade relations?”
Starmer launched his campaign for the leadership formally on Sunday, with a video highlighting his credentials in standing up for leftwing causes as a campaigning lawyer, and the slogan “Another Future is Possible”. Norwich South MP Clive Lewis, who co-founded the Love Socialism Hate Brexit group of Labour MPs, also warned against the risk of rehashing the leave/remain debate in the months ahead.
Other contenders include the leftwing favourite Rebecca Long Bailey, the Wigan MP Lisa Nandy, the shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry, and Clive Lewis, the co-founder of the anti-Brexit campaign group Love Socialism Hate Brexit. “The fight now is about the kind of country we’re going to be,” he told the Guardian. “And if we now spend the next five years or longer looking back, and define our future as rejoining the EU we’ll lose the next stage of this battle, which is about whether we’re going to be an isolationist, inward-looking, xenophobic country, or an outward-looking, progressive, internationalist country.”
The race will swing into gear this week, with Labour’s ruling national executive committee (NEC) meeting on Monday to decide the ground rules. Labour’s ruling national executive committee (NEC) will meet at noon on Monday to confirm the rules and timetable for the election, which is expected to be completed by the end of March.
Starmer rejected the idea that Labour’s pro-referendum policy, with which he was closely associated, had been the key factor undermining support for the party in leave-voting constituencies. However, he conceded, “we didn’t persuade on our policy”. One NEC source said they were likely to stick with rules thrashed out at Labour’s 2018 annual conference, that will oblige candidates to win the backing of trades unions or local parties, as well as MPs. They may be given just days to secure the necessary 21 nominations from MPs and MEPs.
He suggested Labour’s lack of clarity about whether it would support leave or remain in that referendum was a problem – and claimed the party had failed to knock down Johnson’s claim that a vote for him would “get Brexit done”. Leading leftwing candidate Rebecca Long Bailey, who is an NEC member, will not attend the meeting, allies said, amid fears from rival camps of a conflict of interest if she took part.
“We didn’t knock it down hard enough, and I’d have liked the opportunity to knock it down hard,” he said. “Because that was what was coming back: people were saying to us, ‘Ah: this’ll get Brexit done.’ We hadn’t wrestled that phrase to the ground.” He also cited an “overloaded” manifesto, the party’s leadership, and antisemitism. Campaigning stepped up on Sunday with most contenders making media appearances – though Long Bailey has so far confined her participation in an article in the Guardian calling for “progressive patriotism and solidarity”.
Friends said she had taken a break to spend time with her son over Christmas and new year, but was preparing to launch her candidacy formally this week.
Long Bailey’s close friend Angela Rayner, who had been seen as a potential leadership candidate, will kick off her bid to become Labour’s deputy leader with a speech in Stockport on Tuesday.
As well as adjusting to Britain’s imminent departure from the EU, the MPs jostling to succeed Corbyn have been setting out their analysis of the party’s poor performance in last month’s general election.
Phillips said Labour’s key problem during the campaign was that voters did not trust it to deliver on its ambitious promises, including free broadband for every household.Phillips said Labour’s key problem during the campaign was that voters did not trust it to deliver on its ambitious promises, including free broadband for every household.
“The fundamental thing is that the country didn’t trust us to govern. It didn’t trust us to deliver on what we were saying,” she said.“The fundamental thing is that the country didn’t trust us to govern. It didn’t trust us to deliver on what we were saying,” she said.
Asked what she thought when she saw the free broadband pledge, which was based on a plan to renationalise elements of BT, she said: “What I thought was actually what I think lot of people thought, which was I wasn’t sure how we were going to deliver that.”Asked what she thought when she saw the free broadband pledge, which was based on a plan to renationalise elements of BT, she said: “What I thought was actually what I think lot of people thought, which was I wasn’t sure how we were going to deliver that.”
Phillips, the Birmingham Yardley MP, also questioned whether the full list of nationalisations promised by the manifesto – which included mail, water and energy, as well as rail – should have been Labour’s priority. Phillips also questioned whether the full list of nationalisations promised by the manifesto – which included mail, water and energy, as well as rail – should have been Labour’s priority.
On rail, she said the case had clearly been made; but in other areas, she said, “we have to look to, in the future, how those services can better serve the public, and nationalisation is one of those ways – but we have to make choices that people can trust that we will deliver”.On rail, she said the case had clearly been made; but in other areas, she said, “we have to look to, in the future, how those services can better serve the public, and nationalisation is one of those ways – but we have to make choices that people can trust that we will deliver”.
Nandy echoed Phillips’s concerns about Labour’s manifesto. “First of all I wouldn’t have been offering free broadband,” she told the BBC Radio 5 live’s Pienaar’s Politics. “People said to us, ‘It’s all very well promising free broadband but can you sort out the buses?’ and that was the more pressing issue in their lives.” She added: “It’s not about whether you’re radical or not; it’s about whether you’re relevant.”Nandy echoed Phillips’s concerns about Labour’s manifesto. “First of all I wouldn’t have been offering free broadband,” she told the BBC Radio 5 live’s Pienaar’s Politics. “People said to us, ‘It’s all very well promising free broadband but can you sort out the buses?’ and that was the more pressing issue in their lives.” She added: “It’s not about whether you’re radical or not; it’s about whether you’re relevant.”
Phillips said she would like to see new members joining Labour in the coming weeks – and urged the party’s national executive committee (NEC) to allow them all to vote. “We have got to make our movement more representative of the people, so of course people should join,” she said.
“The reality is that at the moment, there is a huge amount of buzz about this contest. In the public glare, lots of people joining the Labour party, for the NEC to say, ‘Actually we’re not interested in you.’ That would look so incredibly bad for the Labour party, at a time when it needs to stop looking inside itself, and start looking outwards.
Phillips, who is accused by many on the left of the party of refusing to be sufficiently loyal to Corbyn, said, “This shouldn’t be a test now of how we feel about each other in the Labour party. This has got to be about whether the Labour party can speak, and connect, and be trusted by the public. None of it matters unless we can win an election.”