IT'S worse than I thought. Piqued into action by the almost universal criticism of the Shadow Cabinet’s Trappist silence their response was a complete embarrassment.
It is extraordinary that Labour, the main left of centre party, which carries the hopes and aspirations of many ordinary, working and unemployed people is still supporting the job destroying, fascist creating, democracy eroding EU monster.
Chris Bryant, Labour’s Shadow Immigration Minister, in a desperate search for positive headlines launched an attack on Tesco and Next for employing a “large percentage” of staff “from Eastern bloc” countries. Unfortunately, Chris had not done his basic research properly and had got his facts wrong. Embarrassingly his draft speech had been circulated to the press beforehand and critical parts had to be withdrawn.
Chris BryantThe slapdash preparation of what should have been a significant statement was not the worse part of this sad tale. What was exposed was the lack of coherence of our policy, a much more significant failure. Precisely the point that I and other Labour MPs had been making when our patience finally snapped at the lack of visibility of the Shadow Cabinet.
The key point that Chris wanted to establish, if only he had done his homework, was that British employers should prioritise the employment of British workers over workers from the rest of the EU. Unfortunately, this conflicts dramatically with the way Labour’s front bench have prosecuted their EU policy in the House of Commons.
Support and enthusiasm for nearly every EU initiative is the hallmark of their approach; from the recent accession of Croatia, with its porous borders and absence of the rule of law, to support for the continuation of the Euro. Unfortunately, it is the European Union and its court, the European Court of Justice, that prohibits support for British workers in the way envisaged.
It is one thing to make a muddle of a press release, it is quite another to not understand the contradiction between support for the European Union and protection of British workers and our democracy, both of which are threatened by the EU.
An absolutely fundamental principle of the EU is the free movement of labour. Recent rulings by the European Court of Justice (the Laval and Viking cases) have reinforced this by a ruling in relation to the free movement of labour within the single market which further undermines the position of workers by eroding national pay rights.
The leadership of the Labour Party seems to have a nostalgic view of the EU, believing it to be the embodiment of a social democratic ideal of peace, prosperity and democracy. The reality is very different. The Euro has created unprecedented high levels of unemployment and perpetual recession in the member states bordering the Mediterranean (levels of youth unemployment are regularly over 50%). The failure of the economic policies pursued by the unelected European Commissioners has created fertile ground for the far right.
It is extraordinary that Labour, the main left of centre party, which carries the hopes and aspirations of many ordinary, working and unemployed people is still supporting the job destroying, fascist creating, democracy eroding EU monster. It is even more extraordinary that some members of Labour’s leadership believe that only nutters support a referendum and our exit from the EU. This puts them at odds, in round terms, with 80% of voters who want a referendum and the majority that want to leave the EU altogether. This is not a sustainable position.
In or out? Up or down?
Either the Labour leadership has to make a case for staying in the EU and abandon ill-thought through publicity stunts, or it has to dump its wholehearted support for the EU and establish policies which support the interests of the people who vote for us and those that we wish would vote for us. If we continue to do both then we will not only be accused of hypocrisy but there will be many more Chris Bryant style car crashes ahead.
Ed Milliband’s speech to the annual Labour Party conference at the end of September should give an absolute commitment to an in-out referendum on our membership of the EU. I would not envy being a candidate in the European elections next May if we are the only party denying the electorate a vote in the referendum. It simply isn’t credible to say that we trust you, the electorate, to vote for us for Members of the European Parliament but that we don’t trust you to decide whether or not we should be in the EU.
