What are Labour’s options on Brexit?

Sean O’Grady considers the choice Starmer has to make in the event a deal is struck

The Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, is in a political pickle (EPA)

One of the many perversities of Brexit is that while the House of Commons will have to vote on any new EU trade deal, if there is no deal then there will be no opportunity for the Commons to approve or reject that particular future, short of re-opening the existing laws enacting Brexit. So even if they wanted to, Labour would not be able to instruct the government to reach a deal. This is in stark contrast to the situation before the last election when the Commons did that very thing, with a bill sponsored by Hilary Benn, which became the Benn Act. That was then swept away when Boris Johnson won his large majority a year ago.    

Sir Keir Starmer only has the option of voting on any new trade deal that is reached. As ever, he has a choice. The indications are that he will ask his MPs to vote for the deal irrespective of its terms similar my because it is inherently preferable to no deal, even if it’s a scrawny and sorry affair. They argument there is compelling to him.  

If he wanted to cause trouble for the government and add to the pressure on Johnson in a rather bloody-minded way he could whip Labour to reject the deal because it is flawed and tell ministers to go back and get a better deal and extend the transition period. This is what sometimes happened to Theresa May, when her rebels sided with the opposition. But now there is no time and Johnson has purged virtually all of the Europhiles on the Tory benches. The result would very likely be no deal, with the Labour partly responsible. Such a prospect would prompt a huge rebellion and chaos in his own party. It was never a possibility.