Draft Brexit composite

This is a draft composite on Brexit for Labour conference 2019. It is supported by Another Europe is Possible, Labour for a Socialist Europe, Open Labour, Labour for a Public Vote and Remain Labour – all of the campaigns putting forward motions to this composite. 

All campaigns are united behind a clear red line of the Labour Party supporting Remain in any public vote on Brexit. 

From 6.30pm this evening, delegates will meet to decide the actual composite going to conference floor. This is the starting point for that discussion, endorsed by a large majority of delegates in the room.

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The real division in society is not between those who voted Leave and Remain, but between the many and the few. Brexit is poisoning politics and stopping us from addressing the issues that matter to people. We need a general election to deliver a radical Labour government.

The Conservative Party is determined to rip the UK out of the EU on October 31, deal or no deal. Their agenda is part of a right-wing nationalist exploitation of global economic and social crisis.

Investment in the UK has plummeted. Manufacturing orders are down to their lowest since the financial crisis a decade ago. The cost of living is already higher than in 2016. Public services are threatened. Working people are already paying the price for the Tories’ Brexit failure. 

The Tories want to undermine our rights and living standards. They are desperate to create a low tax, low regulation, low rights economy which will benefit the richest 1%.

The Tories’ plans for Brexit threaten jobs, workers’ rights, migrants, the NHS, public services and the environment, and would make it harder for us to deliver a radical manifesto. If Britain leaves the EU, Brexit does not end. We face years more of negotiations and neoliberal trade deals.

All credible assessments show that the best deal we have is our current deal as a member of the EU.

If we were to leave, the so-called backstop is a vital insurance policy ensuring no hard border in Ireland unless and until the principles of the Good Friday Agreement are provided for in any future UK-EU relationship. 

Conference applauds Jeremy Corbyn’s successful efforts to hold the Tories to account for their disastrous handling of Brexit and applauds Labour’s efforts to reach across the divide.

The only way to resolve Brexit and to move on and address the horrendous societal problems that we face, is through a confirmatory referendum with an option to remain in the EU against a credible leave option. Conference urges the PLP to propose or support any motion in Parliament for this.

Labour must reflect the overwhelming view of its members and votes, who want to stay in the EU. Labour will therefore campaign energetically for a public vote and to stay in the EU in that referendum.

Labour will show solidarity with the people of Northern Ireland and protect the Good Friday Agreement by opposing any Brexit deal and make campaigning to remain in EU manifesto commitment 

We support revoking Article 50 if necessary in an emergency to prevent No Deal.

In government, Labour will address the reasons people voted Leave. We will attack poverty, insecurity and inequality; rebuild communities with public investment and ownership; boost wages and union rights; and combat the climate crisis. We will defend free movement and extend migrants’ rights.

Labour will build cross-border alliances to transform Europe with socialist policies, starting with a Green New Deal, levelling up of wages and rights, and ending Fortress Europe. Labour will convene an international conference of left parties, unions and social movements to coordinate this struggle.