Key Jeremy Corbyn ally Jon Trickett takes aim at Yvette Cooper's bid to extend Article 50
2 min read
Labour's support for a bid by one of its own backbenchers to delay Brexit has been cast into doubt after a Shadow Cabinet minister said it risked "ignoring the views of millions of ordinary folk".
Shadow Cabinet Office minister Jon Trickett - a key ally of leader Jeremy Corbyn - warned that Yvette Cooper's cross-party push to extend Article 50 could alienate voters who wanted politicians to "get on with" making Brexit happen.
The intervention came just hours before Tuesday's Commons vote on a raft of alternatives to Theresa May's Brexit plan, with Ms Cooper's amendment widely expected to be chosen for a vote by Commons Speaker John Bercow.
If passed, the amendment would pave the way for a bill requiring the Government to ask he EU for an extension of Article 50 if it cannot get a Brexit deal through the Commons by February 26.
Labour frontbenchers including Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell and Shadow Business Secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey have publicly expressed support for the proposal, with Mr McDonnell saying the party is "highly likely" to back it.
But Mr Trickett told the Guardian he had doubts about the plan after speaking to voters in his pro-Brexit Hemsworth, West Yorkshire constituency over the weekend.
"What they said is: look, we voted Remain, but we’ve had a vote; get on with it," he told the paper.
"And I think that probably does capture a large swath of opinion in the country. That’s how I feel about this amendment. I feel that it may look to people as if we’re trying to somehow remove the earlier decision, which was to Brexit."
Ms Cooper's bill currently proposes extending Article 50 for nine months if the Government fails to get its Brexit deal through.
But Mr Trickett said such a delay was likely to anger voters.
"I think people might say, if it’s before the summer, it might be a reasonable kind of period of time," he said.
"Nine months sounds like the British establishment doing what it always does, which is ignoring the views of millions of ordinary folk, and that I am not prepared to tolerate."
The warning from the Labour frontbencher came after Shadow Education Secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey said the public "don't want" a delay to Article 50.
But she told Sky News at the weekend: "Labour will do whatever it takes to avoid a no-deal Brexit.
"So if that's the only option that we have then it's something we will seriously consider."
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