Jeremy Corbyn has angered some of his party’s pro-European MPs for failing to take action against those who defied a three-line whip to vote against an amendment that would have prevented Britain from leaving the EU with no deal.
On Tuesday night, Labour ordered its MPs to vote for an amendment put forward by Yvette Cooper, but 14 Labour MPs broke the whip to vote against it and several more — including most of the shadow education team — choose to abstain.
The amendment, which would have placed a legal obligation on Theresa May to extend Article 50 beyond March 29 in order to avoid a no-deal Brexit, was defeated with 298 votes for and 321 against.
Previously, Corbyn sacked then-shadow housing ministers Andy Slaughter and Ruth Cadbury and shadow Foreign Office minister Catherine West after they voted for an amendment in 2017 calling for Britain to remain within the customs union and single market.
In June 2018 several MPs, including Ellie Reeves, Rosie Duffield, and Anna McMorrin, had to resign their positions to vote in favour of an amendment that would have kept Britain in the EEA.
Up next is the big one: the Cooper amendment. This seeks to prevent no deal. Labour are supporting this, but not all of their MPs are planning to vote in favour. It will also need a good few remainer/soft-Brexit Tories to vote in favour if it’s to pass.
Laura Smith, who also voted against the Cooper amendment on Tuesday night, resigned her position in 2018 to vote against the same EEA amendment.
“It’s good to know that the whip is now advisory and that it’s only pro-Europeans who get the sack under Jeremy Corbyn,” one furious MP told BuzzFeed News. “People can draw their own conclusions about our eurosceptic leadership. It’s a shocking betrayal of so many of our members and voters.”
Another MP said: “In the summer a number of MPs had to resign from the front bench because they wanted to vote in favour of EEA membership, the whip was to abstain. Last night a number of frontbenchers abstained, yet they’ve continued to keep their jobs.”
“It seems there’s one rule for one and another for another,” they added. “I don’t think that reflects the views of the majority of Labour Party members’ positions on the EU and I hope that the leadership starts to take that into account.”
A third Labour MP told BuzzFeed News: “We face difficult decisions over Brexit, but it is disappointing that some frontbenchers decided to disregard the whip at a time when we should stand together against the disaster of no deal.”
“Yet so far they have faced no sanction,” they added, pointing out the difference the leader’s office had taken this time to in 2018, when they said, MPs had been “asked to resign” their positions.
“Lots of colleagues are angry,” a fourth MP told BuzzFeed News, “especially those who were sacked or had to resign for backing Customs Union/Single Market a few months ago, which subsequently became Party policy, when front benchers now defied a 3 line whip, saving the Tories, and nothing happens.”
When asked what action would be taken against MPs who had rebelled, a spokesperson for Jeremy Corbyn said that “it would be dealt with by the whip’s office in the usual day in the next few days,” adding that “each case is treated on its merits.”
Labour MPs told BuzzFeed News they were sceptical that sanctions would be forthcoming.
Cross-party support did help one amendment aimed at stopping no deal, put forward by former Tory environment secretary Caroline Spelman and Labour MP Jack Dromey, to get through the Commons on Tuesday, albeit with a majority of just eight votes.
However, unlike the Cooper amendment, it is not legally binding, and Theresa May has already stressed that it is “not enough” to take no deal off the table.