Lisa Nandy concludes the government has “lost the plot” over Brexit

Labour’s Shadow Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy concluded this morning that the government has “lost the plot” over Brexit, after the Prime Minister confirmed that there is a “strong possibility” of no deal with the EU.

The Prime Minister and the EU Commission president met earlier this week in Brussels and have designated Sunday as the latest deadline for an agreement, with the UK saying it will then decide whether to continue talks.

Asked about the latest deadline on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Nandy said: “We hope very much that it doesn’t come to that. We’ve hoped all the way through that it doesn’t come to that and that we get to a place by Sunday where we can agree some kind of arrangement.

“It doesn’t look like any deal that the government now comes back with will be a particularly good deal for Britain, but at least it might give us the chance to build on. We’re still very much hoping that the government will come forward with something, as they promised, and give some certainty to business about what is going to happen in 20 days’ time.”

The Shadow Foreign Secretary said: “We’ve never been hung up on ideology or arbitrary deadlines, it’s the government that has been concerned about that. What we really want to see is some clarity and some certainty.

“There is a level of urgency to this: on the 1st of January, if nothing is agreed, business who have had no time to plan will have to suddenly deal with tariffs being imposed on them. The Prime Minister calls it an Australia-style deal, but in actual fact for most businesses it just feels like chaos.

“So we want to see pretty quickly the government coming forward with some solution and we’re still hopeful that will happen. I think we’re, like a lot of the British public, watching the negotiations with an increasing sense that the government has just lost the plot.

“As David Gauke, who was a former cabinet minister, said yesterday, the government’s position now is that it’s intolerable to accept tariffs and quotas, so they want to leave on terms that immediately introduce tariffs and quotas. It just seems absolutely absurd.”

On whether Labour supports the EU’s position on the level playing field, Nandy said: “I think the EU needs to move and actually has moved. We’ve said all along that the EU needs to accept that the UK’s position is that we are leaving the EU therefore we’re going to have more flexibility in the way we work.”

Asked whether Johnson’s position is therefore reasonable, Nandy replied: “No, because the sticking point that has emerged overnight in the negotiations is about whether we keep pace with the EU on workers’ rights and environmental standards.

“Don’t forget this is a government that a few months ago was out on their doorsteps clapping for carers and is now arguing that it is intolerable if the EU decides they want to up the pay, conditions, working standards of those precise people… then we shouldn’t be beholden to that.”

Asked whether Labour believes the UK should be beholden to that, she said: “The question is whether we accept – for now – that we keep pace with those standards, and at some point in the future if those standards diverge, if the UK falls behind… then we accept tariffs and quotas.”

Rather than “stand up for British interests”, Nandy said the government is “trying to do down workers’ rights now rather than having that negotiation and flexibility in the future”. She concluded: “It just seems absurd.”

On how Labour will vote on a deal, she said: “What we want to see is a deal. A deal is better than no deal. It represents perhaps a floor, not a ceiling, of what we can achieve for this country. But what we can’t have is a situation where the government is actively doing harm to our businesses.”

She added: “We’d be very minded to support it if it’s in the interests of Britain. But you’ll excuse us for having looked at the last few years of the way that this government has behaved… and wanting to see the detail of that before we decide whether we’re going to sign on the dotted line.”

The Labour leadership is thought to be inclined towards voting in favour of a deal, but it is not yet known whether there will be a deal before December 31st or whether there will be a straight vote on it in the House of Commons.