Brexit: Labour’s Dramatic Move

Like many key events which occur in politics today, Labour’s decision to go for remaining in both the Customs Union and the Single Market during a transition period and additionally not ruling out remaining in both as part of a Brexit settlement, is a game changer. So far few commentators have remarked on it in those terms.

There is now no chance of the government pushing through some type of hard Brexit, or cliff edge leap at the end of negotiations failing, because the Parliament now has an overwhelming majority for a soft Brexit, which puts the economy first. Practically every organisation representing either business or the workforce, science, education, the list goes on and on, is pressing for this. In the commons Labour, the SNP, the Lib Dems and a good part of  Tory MPs, together with the House of Lords would not allow such madness through. A Brexiteer dash to the country for a mandate for WTO rules etc. would court disaster for the Tories, even oblivion.

So the Brexit of the Red Bus has unraveled. Yesterday we gave Boris a good mark for his Libya efforts. Today that is cancelled out. As the cheer leader of the dishonest and ignorant Leave campaign, he must take his responsibility for this turn of events. Nobody did their homework; they were all clueless about what was involved. And they were, to use Boris’s own turn of phrase, wildly optimistic.