Will Remainer infighting scupper plans for national unity government?
Tory rebels agree to meet Jeremy Corbyn despite Lib Dems saying they will not support Labour leader as caretaker
Rebel Tory MPs plotting to stop a no-deal Brexit have said they will meet Jeremy Corbyn to discuss plans for a government of national unity despite other opposition parties ruling out serving under the Labour leader.
Dominic Grieve, Dame Caroline Spelman, Sir Oliver Letwin and Nick Boles, the former Tory who now sits as an independent, have said they would enter talks with Corbyn, after receiving a letter urging them to back a Labour plan to topple Boris Johnson, via a no-confidence vote, and install him to lead a “strictly time-limited government” that would be given the task of extending Article 50 ahead of a Brexit-based general election.
However, The Times reports the letter, which was also sent to the SNP, Lib Dems, Plaid Cymru and Greens, has “prompted a fresh bout of Remainer infighting” with the Liberal Democrats saying the idea such a divisive figure as Corbyn could ever command a cross-party majority of MPs was “nonsense”.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
“We may need an emergency government to resolve [Brexit],” she said. “But if Jeremy Corbyn truly wants that to succeed surely even he can see that he cannot lead it. There is no way he can unite rebel Conservatives and independents to stop Boris Johnson. It’s not even certain he would secure all the votes of Labour MPs.”
Former Tory Remainer Anna Soubry, who now leads the five-strong Independent Group for Change, echoed that sentiment by saying that while a national unity leader was needed Corbyn was “not that person.”
Corbyn hit back by stressing that as leader of Britain’s largest opposition party it was “absolutely in line with all the norms of the unwritten British constitution,” that he be the first to try to form a government. Politico says he “piled further pressure on the anti-Brexit parties to support his bid for No. 10 as the best route to staying in the EU” by making clear that if he does secure a general election before Britain leaves the EU, Labour’s manifesto would promise a second referendum with “Remain” on the ballot paper.
“In constitutional terms he is the obvious candidate; probably the only candidate,” says Rafael Behr in The Guardian. “But in the minds of scores of MPs he is not. Their horror of Corbyn is equal to – or greater than – their horror of Brexit.”
BBC political correspondent Tom Barton said the initial response from the other parties suggests Corbyn “probably doesn't have the numbers to get his plan through”.
“There are plenty of MPs who say they want to stop a no-deal Brexit but getting them to agree on how to do it – that’s a different matter altogether,” he says.
In a bid to break the deadlock, the Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson has proposed either Tory MP Ken Clarke or Labour’s former deputy leader Harriet Harman, as the Father and Mother of the Commons, as alternative caretaker candidates whom those opposed to no deal could unite around.
Tom Peck in The Independent says “if a no-deal Brexit is to be avoided, somebody, somewhere, and very soon indeed, is going to have to do something they don’t want to do. But, at least for today, that person is not going to be Jo Swinson, and nobody quite knows who it will be”.
This sets up a high-stakes game of brinkmanship. Setting out the arguments on both sides Stephen Bush in the New Statesman writes “it would be politically self-destructive for Corbyn to give way on the question of who heads up that government because that would involve publicly acknowledging and giving credence to the doubts that Conservative rebels and former members of his own party have about his fitness for office – it’s not serious to expect any political leader to concede that point at any time, but particularly not before an election.”
“But it would also be politically self-destructive for the Liberal Democrats, whose path to winning more constituencies runs through picking up disgruntled former Labour voters and a small but significant tranche of despairing Conservative voters in Tory-held seats, to concede the idea that they could ever make Jeremy Corbyn Prime Minister” he adds.
Behr says the Labour leader knows that the Commons numbers don’t add up for an alternative caretaker unless most of the parliamentary Labour party abandons the whip “and he is calling the whole GNU [Government of National Unity] bluff”.
“If a government falls, the opposition leader is the next in line to have a go and, if that can’t be arranged, there is an election. That is how it works. There might be many reasons why MPs do not want an opposition leader to take charge – that is their constitutional right, too – reasons of tactical political advantage and reasons of conscience. But MPs have not all been candid about what those reasons are; why it is that so many find Corbyn as toxic as Brexit. Their problem is that there aren’t a lot of other options”.
While there may be a majority in Parliament against no-deal, with Remainers so divided their plan for a government of national unity “remains a pipe dream”, says Asa Bennet in The Daily Telegraph.
“Unless Remainers are prepared to bite the bullet and declare confidence in Mr Corbyn as Prime Minister, a more credible scenario than him being persuaded to stand aside and support someone less tainted, their dream alternative government will never become a reality. And deservedly so,” he says.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Two ancient cities have been discovered along the Silk Road
Under the radar The discovery changed what was known about the old trade route
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published
-
'People shouldn't have to share the road with impaired drivers'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
Is academic freedom in peril?
Today's Big Question Faculty punishments are on the rise
By Joel Mathis, The Week US Published
-
What is the next Tory leader up against?
Today's Big Question Kemi Badenoch or Robert Jenrick will have to unify warring factions and win back disillusioned voters – without alienating the centre ground
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
What is Lammy hoping to achieve in China?
Today's Big Question Foreign secretary heads to Beijing as Labour seeks cooperation on global challenges and courts opportunities for trade and investment
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Is Britain about to 'boil over'?
Today's Big Question A message shared across far-right groups listed more than 30 potential targets for violence in the UK today
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
UK's Starmer slams 'far-right thuggery' at riots
Speed Read The anti-immigrant violence was spurred by false rumors that the suspect in the Southport knife attack was an immigrant
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
How could J.D. Vance impact the special relationship?
Today's Big Question Trump's hawkish pick for VP said UK is the first 'truly Islamist country' with a nuclear weapon
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
The Tamils stranded on 'secretive' British island in Indian Ocean
Under the Radar Migrants 'unlawfully detained' since 2021 shipwreck on UK-controlled Diego Garcia, site of important US military base
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
How conservative is Labour?
Today's big question Keir Starmer's party triumphed in the general election despite prioritising 'wealth creation and growth, not redistribution'
By Abby Wilson Published
-
Britain's Labour Party wins in a landslide
Speed Read The Conservatives were unseated after 14 years of rule
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published