Tag: Sarah Wollaston

MPs will then vote on the motion as amended, or not. The amendments being voted on, in order: H. Cross-party request for second referendum Tabled by former Tory Sarah Wollaston, now of the Independent Group, and signed by around 30 MPs, this seeks a delay for a new referendum, which would have remain as an option. If it passes, amendments I and E would not be voted on. If it is voted on (if amendment H loses) and passes then amendment E would not be voted on. E. Labour amendment Led by Jeremy Corbyn, this notes the rejection by parliament of May’s Brexit plan, and of no deal, and says the government should “provide parliamentary time for this house to find a majority for a different approach”. If this amendment was passed it could give the Speaker the power to block another vote on May’s deal as it has been voted down twice by parliament already. This will be voted on whatever else happens. Plaid Cymru amendment This amendment, signed by Plaid’s four MPs, called for a delay to Brexit until 2021, and a second referendum at the end of this. D. Liberal Democrat second referendum plan Tabled by the the Lib Dems’ 11 MPs, this also called for a Brexit delay and a second referendum. F. SNP/Plaid second referendum plan Yet another extension/second referendum amendment, this also called for remain to be an option in the referendum, and for the revocation of article 50 to be possible in the interim.

A proposed cross-party amendment to Theresa May’s Brexit plan calling for a “people’s vote” was ditched due to limited support days before Tuesday’s Commons votes. While conceding some damage, proponents insist that if May is unable to forge a consensus, the looming prospect of a no-deal Brexit could focus minds. “We know it’s often people’s second-best choice, not their first choice, so people will only come to it when other alternatives have been exhausted,” said Caroline Lucas, the Green party MP. “We’re getting closer to the moment where what will be on the table is either no deal or a people’s vote, and at that point I think we’ll see a lot more people coming in.” The campaign, which from a standing start last year managed to mobilise hundreds of thousands to march through London, has faced inflated expectations and the perhaps inevitable over-reach and disorganisation that comes from a loose alliance of several groups. The Labour leadership had been infuriated the week before when the people’s vote campaign used the day of a no-confidence motion against May’s government to unveil a new group of supportive Labour MPs at a photocall. “They’ll pat us on the back and say ‘keep going’, and you think: when the frig are you going to put your head over the parapet?” But a Labour source said campaigners had been over-hasty. If you’ve got Labour MPs who are worried about just being seen to delay Brexit, they’re not ready to back a second referendum yet.” Some Labour MPs are sceptical more generally. “Parliament cannot in all good conscience facilitate a process that could potentially lead to a referendum with no-deal on the ballot paper, because in doing so we would be playing Russian roulette with the jobs and livelihoods of our constituents,” he said. There is also Best for Britain, the semi-detached, Gina Miller-founded group which focuses on the granular work of petitioning individual MPs – more specifically, the 10 or 15 MPs each from Labour and the Conservatives seen as potentially persuadable. A source said the aim was for Fitzpatrick to receive “200 or 300 postcards a week”.

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.

A row has broken out among campaigners for a second referendum about when to push the issue to a vote in parliament, with the Conservative MP Sarah Wollaston resisting pressure not to table her amendment demanding a “people’s vote”. With the Labour leadership withholding its support, some campaigners fear forcing the issue to a vote on 11 December would undermine their cause. They believe once it has been shown that there is no majority for a second referendum – and achieving one is likely to be impossible without Labour backing – it will be difficult to return to the question again if May’s deal is rejected. Wollaston said she remained a “passionate supporter” of a people’s vote, but would wait until after the weekend before deciding whether she would table her “doctors’ amendment”. If MPs reject the deal, there are seven possible paths the country could go down next. Labour tries to force an election The opposition tables a vote of no confidence. Some MPs fear the government could then say parliament had definitively rejected a second referendum. The government’s announcement that it will accept amendments to the motion approving May’s Brexit deal – with up to six to be voted on, before the deal itself – has sparked a scramble to decide which questions to press. Meanwhile the Conservative former minister Jo Johnson warned on Thursday that May’s Brexit deal could lead to electoral Armageddon for his party. Johnson described the package their party leader had agreed with the EU as a “botched deal” that would put British firms at a competitive disadvantage and fail the services sector, which he said had been “scandalously” neglected during negotiations on Brexit.

In recent weeks, many of her Totnes constituents have received Facebook messages from the rightwing businessman and Ukip backer Arron Banks’s Leave.EU campaign, describing the MP as “Slippery Sarah” and urging supporters of Brexit to join the local Conservative association – and then deselect her. The Totnes association has seen a jump in applications for membership and Wollaston is preparing for a fight. “I have huge respect for the fact that Sarah is one of those politicians who put their constituents and the greater good first. Others targeted include the former home secretary Amber Rudd, who has backed the idea of a people’s vote rather than no deal, and Anna Soubry, who champions a soft Brexit. At the end of last month the blue wave sent attack ads to Devon in which it claimed: “54% in Totnes voted leave but Sarah Wollaston wants a second referendum ... Totnes deserves better than Slippery Sarah. Join the local Tories and deselect her.” It got nastier during a rally at the Tory conference when Boris Johnson ally Conor Burns suggested the Brexit campaigner Darren Grimes, the founder of the campaign group BeLeave, should try for Wollaston’s seat, saying: “Have a look down in Totnes, you’d be brilliant.” Burns and Grimes later brushed it off as a joke but Wollaston is certainly taking the threats seriously, claiming a “purple wave” – a reference to the Ukip colours – rather than a blue one was in danger of damaging the party. If people apply to join the party, they can’t turn them away without good reason. She was elected on the Tory manifesto and that's not what she's doing now Ceri Jayes, Totnes Ukip branch chair If Totnes is full of Wollaston supporters who don’t like the campaign, the fishing town of Brixham, also within the constituency, has a good few critics. “People have voted for Brexit for good reasons,” he said. If that threshold is reached an open contest has to be held, in which other candidates as well as the sitting MP can stand.

MPs are set to decide the shape of Brexit next week, in what is coming to be seen as one of the most important votes so far on the EU withdrawal bill. Dr Sarah Wollaston, one of the most prominent Tory rebels, said: “There are some who really do just want a walk-away no-deal Brexit but others, like myself, who feel just as passionately that a hard Brexit would be immensely damaging and want parliament to be able to prevent that.” Rebels believe there is still no majority in parliament for a hard Brexit and that they can muster enough support across the Commons to carry an amendment on a meaningful vote. But Brexiters also believe that with a handful of Labour rebels and a few Tory abstentions, they can win, and they are urging Theresa May not to make any more concessions to MPs. On Monday, peers will vote again on the so-called Hailsham amendment. It says that if by February 2019 – only weeks ahead of the exit date of 29 March – there is no deal, MPs will be empowered to direct the government. One rebel, Antoinette Sandbach, who has been threatened and abused on social media for her pro-European position, said that in the hour before the amendment was tabled, David Davis’s Department for Exiting the European Union (DExEU) “appeared to get involved and the process was hijacked and one was tabled that wasn’t agreed to”. She said: “There was no discussion, no notification. It’s extraordinary. I’d like to see grown-up government and it seems to me that DExEU is trying to reduce parliament to a school debating chamber. The outcome of next week’s votes is likely to have a bearing on the approach the government takes as it prepares for the big quarterly council meeting in October.

Harriet Harman has claimed that the arrival in parliament of a fresh generation of “Tory feminist” MPs alongside men with modern attitudes has the power to boost the women’s rights movement. The Labour MP, who has been parliament’s leading feminist advocate for decades, said the changing nature of female Conservative politicians from the “doughty tweedy matrons” of the past to today’s feminists had been critical. Women march in London to call for gender equality Read more Speaking before International Women’s Day on Thursday and a speech on Tuesday night about her experience as a female MP, Harman said: “The whole agenda for women in the House of Commons has changed, firstly because of the numbers – there are more than 200 female MPs now. But, secondly and critically, there has been a dramatic change in the nature of Conservative women MPs. We have now got feminists on the Tory side, who are very different from the doughty tweedy matrons of the past. She also praised former education secretary Justine Greening, as well as Anne Milton, Rachel McLean and Mims Davies, and said there were “loads more”. #MeToo has changed the mood. But only improved policy can change the reality | Harriet Harman Read more The comments are a significant shift for Harman, who once branded May as “no sister” on women’s rights, arguing that Britain’s second female prime minister had voted for cuts to programmes that were vital for women. “It is also about the change in the attitude of male MPs – the ‘new man’ has arrived in parliament,” she said. Harman also read out a letter from another SNP politician, Stephen Gethins, after he spoke about his responsibility to his wife.