Calls for Brexit debate could cause policy row at Labour conference


Ben Quinn Political correspondent
Thu, 5 October 2023 

Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

The constituency party of the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is among 30 backing a motion for debate at Labour’s conference that could open up a major argument about Brexit.

A motion from the Labour Movement for Europe, which calls for the party to make commitments including negotiating a visa system with the EU, is among those being considered for debate at the conference in Liverpool this weekend.

Supporters of Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, have been canvassing delegates to vote for different motions to be debated on the conference floor. The party’s largest centrist grouping, Labour to Win, has messaged supporters urging them to vote for six specific topics to be debated, including the NHS and Ukraine.

The hope is this will minimise controversy by sticking to policy areas agreed on behind closed doors in meetings of constituency Labour parties (CLPs), unions and others during national policy forum (NPF) discussions this year.

The message said: “It is essential that we all vote for these to ensure that supporters of the leadership have control of the conference agenda.” It goes on to say this would stop critics of the leadership, such as the Momentum group, introducing “unhelpful” motions.

Luke Akehurst, a co-director of Labour to Win, said: “We don’t want an argument at Labour party conference that would create unnecessary divisions as we head towards a general election. We are very happy with the text on Europe and a range of subjects that was carefully negotiated at the NPF.

“This is not about how I feel about Brexit or about how members feel. There is no way that having a debate about Europe would be in the party’s interests at this point. It could spiral off in any direction given, for example, the very divergent ways in which different constituencies voted in the referendum.”

Motions that the conference will debate and vote on will be announced on Sunday after delegates vote in a priority ballot that runs from late morning until after lunch.

The MP Stella Creasy, chair of the Labour Movement for Europe, said: “There is clearly an interest amongst members in moving beyond the old debate about whether you can make Brexit work and whether we can rejoin.

“Keir has set out that we want a closer relationship with Europe so it’s understandable members want to discuss openly what Britain can negotiate in the first years of a Labour government. They know trade with Europe will be critical to the jobs and growth our country needs and want to show they share the public’s concern at the damage Tory Brexit has done.”

Andy Rontree, a councillor and member of Reeves’s Leeds West CLP, which is backing the motion, said it was not about opening up a debate on rejoining the EU but about improving the UK’s ties to Europe amid uncertainty over whether Britain could depend on the US were Donald Trump to become president again.

While the Europe motion may not make it through, other motions backed by unions are more likely to. They are understood to include motions committing the party to the “new deal for working people” – a set of proposals to deal with low pay, insecurity and disempowerment, but which some unionists and those on the left fear Starmer wants to dilute.

Hilary Schan, a co-chair of Momentum, said members and unions at conference would be putting forward urgent, popular policies such as public ownership of utilities, free school meals, mass council house building and the introduction of wealth taxes.

“If Keir Starmer once again chooses to ignore these voices, he won’t just be letting down his own party – he’ll be creating a rod for his own back amongst a public hungry for renewal,” she said.