Last night’s Labour defeat proves that blaming Jeremy Corbyn for Brexit is a scam

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On 12 June, Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party tried to begin the process to block a no-deal Brexit. But Theresa May’s administration voted the motion down (309 votes to 298), proving once and for all that blaming Corbyn for the Brexit crisis is a scam.

Only the Conservatives can stop Brexit

As The Canary‘s Frea Lockley summarised:

On 11 June, Labour tabled a cross-party motion to stop a no-deal Brexit. The motion aimed to give MPs full control of the commons agenda on 25 June. So this meant that opposition parties could introduce binding legislation and stop the next Conservative prime minister from forcing through a no-deal Brexit

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Labour’s motion was defeated because the party is in opposition, and doesn’t have the numbers to out-vote the government. It’s always been the case that only Conservative rebels can stop a hard Brexit.

Yet rather than trying to bring Conservative rebels on side, Remainer centrists have long blamed Corbyn for Brexit. Take Guardian writer Barney Ronay:

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Rory Stewart and ‘liberal’ centrist hypocrisy

And even after the latest vote, centrists like Change UK MP Chris Leslie continued blaming Corbyn:

Recently, centrist arch-Remainers have also been showering praise on Conservative leadership candidate Rory Stewart:

But Stewart, who on 11 June claimed his “opposition to No-Deal is unwavering”, voted against Labour’s motion. With that in mind, people called out the lack of consistency from Stewart and his ‘liberal’ supporters:

Corbyn has done everything in his power to stop a no-deal Brexit and remedy May’s deal. On 27 March, MPs cast non-binding votes for different Brexit options. Corbyn’s Labour supported all the motions to either soften or have a confirmatory vote on Brexit. Nonetheless, Remainer centrists continued to blame him.

They attack Corbyn, while fawning over Stewart – a Tory who just refused to even help block no-deal. What this shows is that, for many Remainer centrists, bashing Corbyn is more important than actually stopping a Tory Brexit. They should hang their heads in shame.

Featured image via Fréa Lockley

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    1. What you don’t mention is that 8 Labour MPs voted with the government and 17 abstained, to bring down their own party’s motion.. Corbyn doesn’t have the numbers because he hasn’t got control of his own party, neither the pure remainers (to which group Corbyn and his main supporters don’t belong being very euro-sceptic) nor the pure leavers. Though I’m not so sure they are that ‘pure’ merely worried about leave voters in their constituencies.

      There’s an element of nonsense about this. The EU are not going to give us any new deal – it’s either the one we couldn’t get through parliament in several goes or all in or all out. Any politician, right or left who says otherwise is a liar.

    2. Anti-Brexit nobblers just can’t leave off can they from doing all they can to banjax Brexit? We await to see what slimy scheme they cobble together next to frustrate Brexit ever being delivered cleanly and fairly as it should have been at the outset three tedious, interminable years ago.

    3. It looks like the Tories will get their no – Deal Brexit because of the Stupidity of 8 Labour MPs who supported the Government and 17 who abstained. Why any Labour MP or supporter wants the Tories to keep their tax havens is beyond me. The stupidity of ALL Brexiters is astonishing!

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