Brexiter Tories in open revolt as Labour MPs keep disputes quiet

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Will Jeremy Corbyn attack Theresa May over her shambolic Brexit for a third time in a row at PMQs today?

Although Labour is far from united on the UK’s plan to exit the EU, the party’s disagreements are only being fought out openly amongst members (for now). Earlier this week, Young Labour went to battle as the LabourSay.EU campaign run by Progress/Labour First NEC candidates came up against loyal Corbynites who say calls for a conference vote on Brexit come from an appetite to embarrass the party leader. Unlike the party’s youth wing, members of the shadow cabinet are keeping the volume of arguments low. Even backbench MPs are only making their complaints heard at private PLP meetings.

The Labour leader, on the other hand, has much to go on as Tory bigmouths strike again… and again… and again. From the hardcore Brexit corner, Jacob Rees-Mogg is unhappy – to put it mildly – about May’s New Customs Partnership proposal (now known as NCP, as if we needed more acronyms) and the ‘backstop’ plan to keep customs arrangements beyond 2020. “For the government to be preparing for failure two and a half years before the point at which they ought to be ready is just weak,” he said on ConHome’s Moggcast. “We are not getting our parsnips buttered.”

On the slightly less hardcore but just as ridiculous flank, Boris Johnson has told the Prime Minister to “get on with it” (i.e. leave the customs union). May is the “custodian of the plan”, the Foreign Secretary said, “which is to come out of the customs union, out of the single market and to get on with it, to get on with that project with all convenient speed”. Oh, and he says Britain should get a brightly-coloured Brexit plane. He’s in South America at the moment and didn’t get to use May’s RAF Voyager for his journey. Sounding a lot like Trump, he complained: “What I will say about the Voyager, I think it’s great, but it seems to be very difficult to get hold of… Also, why does it have to be grey?”

We now know these rows aren’t reserved for the Brexit ‘war cabinet’. The government’s 15th EU Withdrawal Bill defeat in the Lords was on environmental protection regulations. In a letter to cabinet colleagues, Brexiter Michael Gove of Defra laid the blame on Remainer Chancellor Philip Hammond, who apparently blocked plans to give a new environmental watchdog more powers.

May is hardly going to bring up splits on the Young Labour committee (surely?), so it seems a safe bet for Corbyn to go on Tory Brexit divisions at 12pm today.

Sienna @siennamarla

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