Theresa May's offer to Jeremy Corbyn, to bring him into talks to agree some deal between them, to resolve the Brexit crisis, is obviously a ploy, and a trap. It is incredible that some Labour MP's are even giving credence to the idea that it might not be, and that May might be genuine in her offer. If they believe that, I have an Eiffel Tower to sell them! But, then, over the last three years, there seems to be no end to the incredible, and impossible, things that some Labour MP's have been prepared to willingly delude themselves into believing. Labour members should demand that Corbyn have nothing to do with May's cunning plan.
May's ploy is clear. It has the appearance of moves towards a national government. It fits with the ideas that some Labour MP's put forward a long time ago, that the government should have incorporated the Labour front bench into Brexit planning, so that Labour too could have been even more held complicit for the unfolding Brexit madness. It fits with the similar proposals, made recently, by John Major, for such a government of National Unity. I wrote to warn about the possibility of such a strategy many months ago. Labour members should totally oppose any such National Government. Such governments always mean an abandonment of working-class interests by the Labour components of such a government, in the interests of “the nation”, which in reality means in the interests of the ruling class, and its representatives. In this case, it means in the interests of the most backward and reactionary sections of the British ruling-class. As I warned at the time, for Corbyn to agree to such an arrangement would put him in the same position as Ramsay MacDonald, whose name to this day, is synonymous with betrayal.
But, in reality, May has no intention of pursuing any such National Government strategy. Her plan, here, simply follows through on the ploy used last week, in separating out the Withdrawal Agreement from the Political Statement. May's strategy is simple. Shift as much blame as possible onto Corbyn for any future calamity, but, more immediately, run down the clock further. If May can get some kind of agreement to put back to the EU, prior to April 10th., she can ensure that Britain gets an extension to May 22nd., and, more importantly, that Britain does not take part in the EU elections. Once she has secured the aim of not taking part in the EU elections, she will drop any pretence of involving Corbyn like a hot potato. If Britain does not take part in the EU elections, it will be forced to leave the EU, on May 22nd. May will have ensured that the option facing Corbyn, and Labour, will be to accept her deal as it stands, or to accept a No Deal Brexit. The difference then, compared to now, will be that there could be no other option, including revoking Article 50. Having not elected any MEP's, Britain would be legally obliged to leave the EU, by one means or another. May would have used Corbyn to get her deal passed.
The fact that this is what May plans is shown by a simple fact. Out of the 29 Cabinet Ministers who plotted all day, yesterday, only 4 really hard line Brextremists disagreed with it. Even they, so far, have not resigned, and nor have any other Brextremist members of the government. That is because the purpose of the day long strategising was to come up with this plan to ensnare Corbyn in May's Brexit web. May undoubtedly thinks that her ploy can work, because she knows that Labour's own position on Brexit is practically identical to that contained in her Withdrawal Agreement. That is why, last week, she tried the first stage of this ploy, by separating the Withdrawal Agreement from the Political Statement. They threw back at Labour their own statements that they had no problems with the Withdrawal Agreement, only with the Political Statement, and its failure to include a commitment to keep Britain in a permanent Customs Union and closely aligned to the Single Market. Had Labour voted for that, May would have achieved her aim. Britain would not take part in the EU elections, and then Labour would be well and truly stuck in May's web.
That ploy failed, but May has just extended it with the enticement of bringing Corbyn into the circle of government decision making. Stalinists, and those, like Corbyn, under the influence of Stalinists, have always been prone to such lures, because of the Stalinist strategy of the Popular Front. Moreover, May knows that Corbyn, and his Stalinist inner circle, are themselves Brextremists, who would love to be able to take Britain out of the EU, but who are constrained by the fact that 90% of party members, and around 75% of Labour voters, oppose Brexit. Bringing Corbyn into these discussions, on this basis, makes Corbyn a willing dupe. If May can use him as cover to drag things on for long enough that the deadline passes, for Britain taking part in the EU elections, she has won, because it means Britain would be forced to leave, and, as neither want to crash out, which will have disastrous consequences, Labour would have no choice but to support May's Deal. It would thereby give Corbyn himself cover as he comes up against a huge backlash from Labour members, to say that it's all May's fault, and that he had been left with no option but to back her deal to prevent a crash out.
It again demonstrates why we need an Emergency Labour Party Conference to set out a clear position opposing Brexit. Labour members should demand that, if Corbyn enters talks with May, the precondition for those talks must be that May agrees to Britain taking part in the EU elections in May. It must be that May agrees to apply for a long extension of Article 50, so that an agreed position can be established, and to prevent us being bounced into a decision. The truth is that Labour's demands for a Customs Union do not resolve the issues of frictionless trade, required to avoid a border in Ireland. A Single Market is required for that. The Tories are already spinning that Labour have agreed to the idea of negotiating separate trade deals, as a means of minimising the significance even of the Customs Union. Its true that Labour has talked about Britain negotiating its own trade deals, but it has combined that with the idea of being also in a Customs Union. That indeed, is what makes that stance not credible, because the whole point of a Customs Union is that you cannot negotiate separate trade deals. It's worth noting that Corbyn has not even always supported the idea of being in the Customs Union, but was forced by the logic of events, and the unfolding of the debate, to accept it.
The truth is, as I've said all along, there was no possibility of May, or any other Tory Leader, negotiating with Labour, at an earlier stage, to get a cross party agreement, to pursue a soft Brexit, based upon continued membership of the Customs Union and Single Market, because the Tory rank and file, and the core Tory vote, 80% of which supports a No Deal Brexit, would not wear it. The only point of Brexit, for the Tories, is to be outside the Customs Union and Single Market, so that the small private capitalists that make up their core membership and voter base, can escape the constraints it puts upon them, and thereby to be able to launch into the bonfire of regulations that the Tory Right have promised them. There is no chance that May will do so now either. The cries of anguish from the Tory Brextremists, at May's approach to Corbyn, only act to give her ploy greater authenticity, thereby acting as a useful goad, encouraging Corbyn closer and closer to the sticky outer edges of May's spider's web, ready to draw him in closer and closer to have the lifeblood drained from him.
Moreover, as I have said all along, and as the EU itself pointed out, there were always, in reality only two options – a hard Brexit or No Brexit. A soft Brexit, of the kind Labour proposes, is unachievable, because the EU will not agree to Britain being outside the EU whilst retaining all of the benefits of being inside, and more. It is not possible to be in the Customs Union, and yet negotiate your own trade deals; it is not possible to be in the Single Market and yet not accept free movement, and the jurisdiction of the ECJ. Moreover, Labour's insistence on being “closely aligned” to the Single Market, rather than inside it, is itself designed to be able to pursue the reactionary objective of ending free movement, a commitment that Labour should be thoroughly ashamed of pursuing, solely, and mistakenly, to appease the views of a few bigots. But, it's not credible that the EU would agree even to such “close alignment” without Britain accepting free movement, and certainly having to accept the jurisdiction of the ECJ.
So, the reality of such a soft Brexit would be, as others have also stated, from the beginning, that Britain would be placed in the position of being a vassal state. It would be in the Customs Union and Single Market, it would accept free movement, and the jurisdiction of the ECJ, it would have to pay budget contributions, probably at a proportionately higher rate than it does now, to remain in those bodies, and in the associated EU regulatory bodies, such as Euratom etc. But, unlike now, it would have no seat at any table in formulating the rules, budgets or anything else enacted by these bodies. Rather than having “taken back control”, it would be the greatest surrendering of sovereignty the country has faced, since it was taken over by William the Conqueror. Why would any rational government agree to that as opposed to simply remaining in the EU. The only alternative to that is a No Deal Brexit. That is actually the kind of Brexit that also flows from May's Deal. It is simply one that is deferred. In other words, it simply means that having left the EU, and then May herself being replaced by a Gove or Bojo, the existing agreements and commitments are torn up, as Britain engages in a process of regulatory divergence, as it starts the bonfire of regulations. It simply avoids the shock that would arise from a No Deal crash out.
May's approach is quite obviously a ploy and a trap. Labour members should raise a large cry that Corbyn stays well away from it. If May fails to get Corbyn to walk into this trap, she will have the choice of trying to push through a No Deal crash out prior to April 10th. which she does not want to do because of its catastrophic consequences for the economy and for the Tory Party, or of going cap in hand to the EU to ask for a long extension. The only basis she can do that is on the basis of promising to call a General Election or another referendum. She will not do that latter, because she knows that Brexit would be rejected by a clear majority. She will go for the former, because she knows that with Corbyn also backing Brexit, he will lose a large chunk of the Remain vote that came to Labour in 2017, ensuring that she gets a clear majority to push through her agenda.
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