A cross-party group of MPs has argued that a “sensible pragmatic compromise” would be more unifying than either a no-deal Brexit or a second referendum.
The “MPs for a deal” group launched its campaign yesterday to win support in the Commons for Brexit through a managed deal. The BBC Wales political editor Felicity Evans describes the proposal as “a mash up of Theresa May's Withdrawal Agreement and concessions she offered to Labour on things like workers' rights”.
One of the MPs, Labour’s Stephen Kinnock, said: “The fact is we are rooted in reality here.” He insisted he was not proposing that “a carbon copy of the withdrawal agreement bill which came out of the cross-party talks,” but argued that the agreement, negotiated by Theresa May, is “certainly a realistic foundation”.
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Kinnock added: “This is not a unicorn. We have something here that is the basic foundations of a perfectly pragmatic deal that we believe can command a majority in parliament and also begin to reunite our deeply divided country. And even at this 11th hour we believe there is time to do it.”
Evans says that although the prospect would be objected to by many MPs, “perhaps Mr Kinnock's suggestion is the rope ladder out of the hole” in which Boris Johnson currently finds himself.
Rory Stewart, the former Tory minister who was among 21 Conservative MPs ejected from the party after supporting backbencher plans to block a no deal, said it was important to make sure neither side of the Brexit debate felt “alienated” or “tricked” by the eventual outcome.
Labour backbencher Caroline Flint said the group was hoping to show there is a “sizable voice building across the house to secure a deal”. The Independent reports claims that 50 or more Labour MPs could be ready to rally behind a compromise Brexit agreement.
Norman Lamb, the only Liberal Democrat MP in the group, said of the prime minister: “He’s completely got himself boxed in. He has to find a way out of this mess, and this is the way out of the mess.”
However, Lamb admitted that the plan “may look like a long-shot,” and a Parliamentary source agrees, telling the BBC: “No one sensible seems to think this has legs. The ERG [European Research Group of pro-Brexit Tory MPs] will kill it from the other side and Boris couldn't risk the optics of bringing back.”
