Tag: Len McCluskey

Trade unions involved in discussing a possible workers’ rights package, which the government hopes will help some Labour MPs support its Brexit deal, said they had yet to see anything from ministers they could support. Union sources said they would want to see the government commit to putting future protection for workers’ rights in the Brexit agreement struck with the European Union, rather than in UK legislation that could be repealed by a future government. They said May had shown no sign of taking on board their concerns about existing labour market regulation, under which, according to one official, an average UK employer “can expect a visit from an enforcement agency once every 500 years”. The prime minister met several union leaders last week, including Len McCluskey, the Unite general secretary who is a key supporter of Jeremy Corbyn; the Unison leader, Dave Prentis; and Frances O’Grady, who heads the TUC. Union officials held meetings with civil servants on Thursday. So far, the government has said only that parliament would be able to vote on whether such improvements should be matched. The ministers have also been talking to Labour backbenchers in leave-supporting areas, including John Mann, in the hope of getting at least a dozen to back May’s deal and make up for the lost votes of Tory Brexiters who will not support any deal May strikes with the EU. Ian Lavery, Labour’s chair, said backbenchers should be careful about talking to the government, and that the prime minister was trying “the last move in the well-thumbed Tory playbook: divide and rule”. Quite simply, taking such a bribe would be fool’s gold,” he wrote in an article for Labour List. The prime minister’s spokesman declined to give any details about the plans, but said any such initiative would cover “every part of the country” that needed investment, not just mining areas.

Backing for a second Brexit referendum in parliament is unlikely to be tested until after next week’s meaningful vote, as campaigners weigh up the best moment to try to win over the Labour leadership. The Conservative MP Sarah Wollaston has scrapped plans to table a “doctors’ amendment” calling for the public to be allowed to exercise “informed consent” about Theresa May’s deal. Wollaston said she would wait until after Tuesday in the hope that “Labour will by then be honouring its commitment to back a ‘people’s vote’”. Juncker hints at helping out Theresa May over Brexit deal Read more Labour strategists had been discussing how the party should whip its MPs, in the event of an amendment being brought to the vote on Tuesday, and had not ruled out giving a free vote, reflecting varying views in the shadow cabinet. But they are unlikely to have to make a decision until after Jeremy Corbyn has tabled a no-confidence vote in the government, which colleagues say he will do “expeditiously” after Tuesday’s vote, with May’s deal expected to be defeated. But Corbyn would come under intense pressure from the party’s membership, which is overwhelmingly anti-Brexit. Downing Street is still hoping for concessions from the EU27 on the Irish backstop, to present to MPs before the vote. A spokeswoman for the prime minister said: “I think in terms of the assurances that the prime minister has said will be forthcoming, that will happen in the lead-up to the vote.” May will be urged to open talks with Labour if MPs vote down her deal. She has already spoken to key union leaders, including Unite’s Len McCluskey, and to several Labour MPs, and has offered to accept an amendment on workers’ rights tabled by John Mann. “We have no confidence whatsoever that she’s capable of working collaboratively on a so-called soft Brexit,” said one shadow cabinet member.

The Unite general secretary, Len McCluskey, has privately told Labour MPs the party should have severe reservations about backing a fresh Brexit referendum, saying voters could see it as a betrayal. The deep scepticism from one of Jeremy Corbyn’s closest and most powerful supporters is likely to unnerve MPs and campaigners hoping the party is warming to the idea of a fresh Brexit vote. The private intervention comes at a fractious time for the party, as the leadership agonises over what its tactics should be if Theresa May loses a vote on the Brexit deal in parliament. McCluskey said he believed Labour MPs would need to eventually back some version of a Brexit deal, sources said. I wouldn’t say that majority of MPs agreed with him at all. Watson said a second vote would only come after “a failure of parliamentary arithmetic and political leadership”. However, other close allies of Corbyn remain sceptical about how a second vote would go down in leave-backing Labour constituencies; and the party’s pollsters have been researching the views of voters in heartland seats. There are also fears that a significant minority of Labour MPs would not back the policy, even if it was backed by the frontbench. Snell, the MP for Stoke Central, told the Guardian he had “huge reservations about the practicalities and politics of holding a second referendum and that is a view that is shared by more and more Labour MPs”. “The fragility of the government along with their obvious lack of majority means we are more than likely heading toward a general election,” he said.