The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 31st May 2019
The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 31st May 2019
The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 31st May 2019
TORY MPs are scrabbling around for votes in the race to elect a new leader following Mrs May’s resignation last week. Eleven wannabe prime ministers have thrown their hats into the ring, ranging from the immensely vain Boris Johnson to rank outsider Kit Malthouse, the little known Housing Minister best known for being Deputy Mayor of London during Boris Johnson’s administration.
Theresa May steps down as leader of the Conservative Party on 7th June but she will remain the caretaker premier until two hopefuls, whittled down by MP primaries, are eventual put to the party’s membership that is said to be around 100,000, most of whom are pensioners.
Meanwhile Boris Johnson has been ordered to appear in court on a charge of misconduct in public office over claims Vote Leave made during the Brexit referendum campaign. Over £200,000 has been raised for an extraordinary private prosecution against Johnson over claims he lied by saying the UK gave the EU £350 million a week during the 2016 referendum campaign.
Mrs May’s resignation followed the disastrous Tory performance in the European parliamentary elections that were easily won by Nigel Farage’s new Brexit Party, which sounded alarm bells at the Conservative Campaign Headquarters. The Brexiteers say that Farage’s victory, and the fact that 64 per cent of the electorate didn’t bother to vote at all, reflects continuing solid support for leaving the European Union. But the Remainers, including those in Jeremy Corbyn’s camp who should know better, bizarrely say the opposite and have stepped up their demands for a second referendum.
majority
The majority of trade unions and a significant number of left social-democrats have long been taken in by the myth that “Another Europe is Possible” spread by the governing Coalition of the Radical Left (Syriza) in Greece and its sister movements in Germany and France.
Now John McDonnell, Jeremy Corbyn’s Number 2, is openly calling for another vote on Europe as the only way to stop a no-deal Brexit. Corbyn himself is sticking to the demand for a general election, at least until the Labour policy review in September. But McDonnell’s call has been echoed by Diane Abbott and Emily Thornberry, both key members of Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet.
McDonnell told the BBC: “Of course we want a general election, but realistically after last night there aren’t many Tory MPs that are going to vote for a general election. It would be like turkeys voting for Christmas.
“So our best way of doing that, I think, is going back to the people in a referendum and I think that’s what our members want.
“So we’re saying quite clearly if there can be a deal, great, but it needs to go back to the people, if it’s a no-deal then we’ve got to block it. And the way we’re doing that, I think, is by going back to the people and arguing the case against it because it would be catastrophic for our economy.”
This is a road to disaster. Millions of people voted decisively to leave the EU in 2016. The alternative is the EU with its austerity regime, the highest food prices in the world, ham-strung unions, and mass unemployment throughout southern and eastern Europe.
We voted for Brexit. If this Government cannot deliver it — and it clearly can’t — then it must be brought down in parliament to pave the way for fresh elections.
The issue is clear. We want another election to get Labour in and the Tories out. We want Labour to stand by the people’s vote to leave the EU without any ifs or buts. And the surest guarantee of Brexit is a massive majority for Labour at the next election.