This was announced by the largest opposition party in Britain on their website.
But before that, the Labor Party wants to try to convince the government of its own Brexit plans. With the move to prevent a „harmful Tory Brexit based on Theresa May’s majority rejected deal,“ Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn was quoted in the message. His party will either submit or support this request, Corbyn said. It was unclear whether a departure from Brexit should be an option.
On Wednesday, however, the party wants to first try in the upcoming vote on the further Brexit steps, the government on the Labor demands to swear, said Corbyn the message. In addition, the party will support a push that will force May to postpone the EU exit if no exit agreement has been ratified by mid-March. This should avert an unregulated withdrawal from the EU.
May had again rejected an extension of the two-year resignation on Monday. She wants to inform Parliament on Tuesday about the status of the Brexit talks. At a summit of EU countries and the Arab League in Egypt she had expressed optimism to bring the agreement through Parliament in time for the departure date on 29 March.
The exit agreement negotiated by May with the EU had failed in mid-January in the lower house. Therefore, the Prime Minister is trying to rectify the EU, but so far without success.
The Prime Minister is now under pressure to agree to a postponement of the EU exit if she does not want to lose control of the case. Given the short time to leave, this would be „a sensible solution,“ said EU Council President Donald Tusk on Monday. He pledged Britain for maximum goodwill of the remaining 27 EU countries.
The latest push by Labor comes just days after several MPs resigned in part to protest Corbyns‘ Brexit campaign.
European political spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Michael Georg Link, welcomed the Labor support for a second referendum. „Labor’s call for a second referendum is Jeremy Corbyn’s rendezvous with reality. Finally, it gives them the chance to prevent uncontrolled Brexit. „Theresa May can not create a majority anymore, according to Link.
Labor demands a much closer connection of Britain to the EU than previously planned by the government. Among other things, the country is to remain, according to the will of Labor, in a customs union with the EU. The members of a customs union agree on common external tariffs, there are no customs duties at the internal borders, and physical checks are therefore largely superfluous.
The proposal from Labor had met with great interest in Brussels. A customs union would largely solve the tricky problem with the border between Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland. The guaranteed and controversial guarantee for an open border between the two parts of Ireland (backstop) agreed in the Brexit Agreement would therefore be unnecessary. All sides want to avoid reintroducing controls on the Irish island to prevent a resurgence of the decades-long civil war.
