Backing Brexit: Mr Remain: Sir Keir Starmer can’t even stand on principle

“I think it’s noticeable, having been Mr Remain all the way up until he got the leadership of the party”. -Diane Abbot

Sir Keir Starmer is facing a rebellion over his decision to back Boris Johnson’s EU trade deal on today.

The Labour leader will order his MPs to vote for the deal in the Commons, ensuring it should pass into law in time for the UK’s exit from EU rules.

Many Remainers must feel very confused right now, Mr Remain backing Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal. The one thing to understand about Sir Keir Starmer is he is not in politics to challenge the status quo, he is there to uphold the establishment.

Yes, his defenders will say what choice does he have? The fact is even if the entire Labour Party voted against this deal it would still pass.

There is no chance of a no-deal by mistake, just a principled stance. The Tory MPs in the self-styled European Research Group (ERG) have stated they back the deal:

Claiming the 1,246-page document “preserves the UK’s sovereignty and fully respects the norms of international sovereign-to-sovereign treaties”.

Sir Keir Starmer is looking to 2024 and beyond so he can legitimately say he voted to ‘Get Brexit Done!’ a mantra he ironically used recently, He hopes we will all have forgotten by then how Mr Remain ruined the party. But as any fan of the Game of Thrones knows, The North remembers and Starmer certainly played his part to get to the iron throne.

Diane Abbott got Starmer’s number and his motivation.

Labour MP Diane Abbott launched a scathing attack on her party leader, Sir Keir Starmer, claiming he had “fairly apparent” ambitions to steal Jeremy Corbyn’s seat throughout his leadership.

“You’ve got to remember that Keir had a project of his own to become the leader of the Labour Party. I blame his mother for calling him Keir.

“And I wasn’t going to work with him to forward that project.”

She added she was “suspicious” of the Labour leader as his “ambition” was fairly apparent.

She said: “I think it’s noticeable, having been Mr Remain all the way up until he got leadership of the party.

“You don’t hear much from Keir about Remain now. I think it’s fairly apparent that Keir had other motives.

“Having said that, he won the leadership election fair and square and you’ve got to respect the mandate.

“But at the time, when Jeremy was leader, it was fairly apparent that Keir had other motives.”

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For many of us, we saw this coming way back in 2018 when Sir Keir Starmer broke the Labour Party, pushing them towards a Remain position that anyone in the western democratic world understood would be a vote loser. However, it would do the job Sir Keir Starmer intended, remove Jeremy Corbyn and get him the leaders seat.

What’s done is done! no amount of remorse from the ‘Remainers’ that helped remove Jeremy Corbyn will bring back those chants of “Oh Jeremy Corbyn” all hopes of a more equal society now lay elsewhere, maybe in Jeremy Corbyn’s global social justice project ‘for the many’ or maybe in one of the younger movements born from this political quake in UK history, it could even be a revival of the old vanguard of the communist party, but one thing is for sure, hope no longer resides within the Labour Party.

On this eve of the historical Brexit vote, we now have insult added to injury, Sir Keir Starmer is set to back the Brexit trade deal. As a LeFT wing leave supporter, I have no issues in the deal being passed but I do find Starmer backing the deal insulting. I like my opponents on such issues to have at least a little dignity and the ability to stand on principle.

But here we are not a U-turn, more a quiet surrender, Labour has described the Brexit trade deal as “a platform to build on”, no wonder the party is bracing itself for a revolt over the decision to vote in favour of it this week.

The Remain position over the last years has caused nothing but destruction within the Labour Party and now Starmer has not got the courage of conviction to see his position through.

In an article for The Independent, Rachel Reeves argues that the agreement need not be a “ceiling of ambition”, insisting that Labour can improve upon it if it wins the 2024 general election.

The shadow Cabinet Office minister also tries to reassure unhappy Labour MPs that Boris Johnson will still “own” the deal, even if they hold their noses and back it on Wednesday.

“We are clear what we mean by that: the next Labour government will seek to build on this deal, not cheerlead for it,” she writes.

The hypocrisy stinks, Labour could have leveraged concessions on any deal made years ago, instead, Sir Keir Starmer manoeuvred the Party into an election losing position as Shadow Brexit secretary, his orchestrated breaking of Brexit policy in the 2018 Labour conference set the party off on an unwinnable course, trying to overturn the biggest democratic vote in UK history, pure fantasy. Many of us realised at that point the People’s vote was just a front, remaining in the EU was not the objective removing Jeremy Corbyn was.

Now, however, Sir Kier Starmer’s Weathercock politics feels not only like a betrayal to all those Remainers who in good faith backed him throughout, some even encouraged him to become leader, meanwhile his every move undermined Labour’s position with the public. He ignored Labour party policy and pushed a composite motion to campaign for a second referendum against a bad deal or a Tory no-deal into a second referendum in all circumstances, even a Labour general election win.

His backtracking gains no favour with the LeFT wing leave supporters who have had to battle our own comrades for the last 4 years, that has created divisions that for many can never be healed.

At least stand or fall on the arguments you make.

There is no need for the Party to back this deal, with an 80 seat majority the Tories do not need Labour’s approval, as we have seen over Starmer’s tenure abstaining has not been an issue for Labour, to not stand on principle now is just weak.

If Starmer had used his position of Shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union to leverage the Tories insisting on better workers rights legislation and guarantees in exchange for support then this entire mess would have been over years ago, of course, there would not have been a Boris Johnson Government and chances are a Corbyn Labour Party would have had as good a shot at winning without the Starmer’s vote losing second referendum to hinder Labour’s prospects.

However the catchphrase “we are where we are” comes to play. If Starmer thinks for one minute his supporting this deal will endear him to LeFT wing leave supporters from the so-called Red wall like me, then sadly he is again politicly naïve.

Labour will never be a united party under Starmer the damage he has brought about from Brexit alone makes him unelectable the betrayal of the Left and his culling of socialist within the party makes him despised, no one likes a traitor and Starmer has now betrayed everyone.

Tony Benn had words to sum up politicians like Sir Keir Starmer

“I have divided politicians into two categories: the Signposts and the Weathercocks. The Signpost says: ‘This is the way we should go.’ And you don’t have to follow them but if you come back in ten years time the Signpost is still there. The Weathercock hasn’t got an opinion until they’ve looked at the polls, talked to the focus groups, discussed it with the spin doctors. And I’ve no time for Weathercocks, I’m a Signpost man. And in fairness, although I disagreed with everything she did, Mrs Thatcher was a Signpost. She said what she meant. Meant what she said. Did what she said she’d do if you voted for her. So everybody who voted for her shared responsibility for what happened. And I think that we do need a few more Signposts and few fewer Weathercocks.” ― Tony Benn

For the wider population, we must ask ourselves now we have our democracy back what are we going to do with it?