Section:GDN 1N PaGe:11 Edition Date:190815 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 14/8/2019 21:00 cYanmaGentaYellowb
Thursday 15 Aug ust 2019 The Guardian •
11Stephen Doughty, a Labour
MP, said Johnson was using “the
shameful language of fascism and
authoritarianism”. He said: “Our Euro-
pean neighbours are friends not an
enemy to ‘collaborate’ with.”
Stephen Gethins, the SNP’s Europe
spokesperson, said Johnson was “dan-
gerously deluded and detached from
reality in his rhetoric over the UK’s exit
from the EU and his ‘do or die’ plan to
crash out without a deal”.
A Downing Street source said John-
son had simply been “trying to make
a clear point that the EU is looking at
what is happening here and getting the
entirely wrong message that parlia-
ment is somehow going to block Brexit
on 31 October ”.
In the Facebook event, Johnson
reiterated his argument that the
government does not seek no deal,
but “we need our European friends
to compromise”. The prime minister
added: “The more they think there’s
a chance that Brexit can be blocked in
parliament, the more adamant they
are in sticking to their position.”
In reality, it is Johnson who is refus-
ing to sit down for talks on a deal with
the EU unless the 27 member states
agree publicly to ditch what he calls
the “undemocratic backstop” and pro-
vide a new agreement.
Brussels has said the backstop is an
essential component of a deal because
it prevents a hard border on the island
of Ireland, but critics say it could trap
the UK indefi nitely in a customs union.
Speaking during the livestream,
Johnson read out a question to him-
self about whether he would schedule
an election for the days after the Brexit
date of 31 October, and declined to rule
that out.
Rowena Mason
Jessica ElgotLabour MPs opposed to a second refer-
endum are considering a “radical and
dramatic intervention” to make clear
to Jeremy Corbyn and Boris Johnson
they are prepared to vote for a Brexit
deal, with one estimating that dozens
of colleagues were now ready to back
the EU withdrawal agreement.
Labour’s Stephen Kinnock, who
co ordinates about 30 MPs in a group
called Respect the Result , said he
believed passing the withdrawal
agreement was the most certain way of
stopping the UK crashing out of the EU.
Kinnock said many of his colleagues
who were opposed to a second refer-
endum felt passing the withdrawal
agreement bill was the best option.
Despite Johnson’s refusal to nego-
tiate with the EU unless it drops the
backstop, Kinnock said a time would
come in the autumn when there
could be a compromise deal based onLabour
Kinnock leads
MPs seeking
‘radical’ deal
the withdrawal agreement bill which
emerged out of cross-party talks.
“We’ve got to make a radical and
dramatic intervention,” Kinnock said.
“ Then it’s up to Boris Johnson to see
where he goes. It means a large num-
ber of us trying as hard as we can,
telling [Corbyn] to make that big, bold
off er, to face down the second referen-
dum campaign and say there’s no time
for that. We’ve got to get this deal over
the line. If that doesn’t work then it’s
perhaps a joint statement, a public ges-
ture that says here are the 50 Labour
MPs that would vote for this. You need
to get 260 of your guys to vote for it .”
Kinnock said he thought a deal
could happen. “Once it’s clear there
is no parliamentary or legislative route
to preventing no-deal then the [with-
drawal bill] is the only game in town.”
Some Labour MPs, including Sarah
Champion, Gareth Snell and Melanie
Onn, have suggested they would back
a deal under some circumstances. One
MP said: “ Many of [my colleagues]Boris Johnson’s decision to launch
a regular “people’s prime minister’s
questions” slot on Facebook
shows how political parties
are increasingly able to bypass
journalists’ scrutiny – confi dent that
traditional media will still report on
sanitised offi cial broadcasts.
The attraction of this approach
for Downing Street is clear. Why
bother holding a regular press
conference for journalists who will
ask about tricky subjects if you can
select the questions yoursel f?
Why bother submitting the prime
minister to a tough one-on-one
interview that could backfi re – as
Johnson found in an excruciating
2013 encounter with Eddie Mair –
when you can avoid the middleman
and reach the audience directly?
And why bother inviting in
cameras from the BBC or ITV when
No 10 offi cials can frame the shot
themselves? This way they can
portray Johnson just as they wish.
His fi rst Facebook event saw him
promising to answer “unpasteurised
and unmediated” questions, in a
visual style instantly recognisable to
people used to watching YouTubers
rather than traditional political
interviews.
Just like an online infl uencer
promoting their personal brand,
there was a relentless positivity
in Johnson’s responses and no
comeback from the people asking
the questions. There was certainly
no detailed scrutiny of Johnson’s
funding fi gures or ambitious claims.
The strategy is being shaped by
Chloe Westley , Number 10’s digital
adviser, a 20-something former Vote
Leave campaigner who was recently
at the Taxpayers’ Alliance.
Westley – who once praised the
far-right anti-Islam activist Anne
Marie Waters – has close links to
Turning Point UK, the British arm
of a pro-Donald Trump youth
organisation. She is part of an infl ux
of young Downing Street advisers
who are used to fi ghting their corner
on Twitter and know how to create
a social media storm by highlighting
divisive cultural issues in order to
“own the libs”.
Two months ago she recorded a
spoof video for Turning Point UK
entitled Shit Champagne Socialists
Say , in which the lefties portrayed
came out with lines such as “is
there wheat in this?” and “have
you fi nished with your copy of the
Guardian?” It provoked a largely
negative reaction on Twitter, which
after all may have been the intention
in a media ecosystem where any
attention is considered a success.
The live audience for the
prime minister’s initial Facebook
broadcast was tiny – fewer than
50,000 views in the fi rst half
hour – but in an election, boosted
by relatively cheap Facebook
advertising, such a broadcast could
easily reach millions.
More importantly, Downing
Street is confi dent that news
outlets, starved of their own access
to politicians, will end up using
the footage regardless. U nless the
entire media industry refuses to run
quotes from this sanitised version of
a press conference, Number 10 and
other political parties are likely to
increasingly pursue this route.
Jim Waterson Media editor▲ Top, former Labour MP Luciana
Berger called Johnson’s language
‘dangerous’; above, Philip Hammond
broke his silence on Brexit yesterday
Analysis
Why we will see more
Facebook PMQsnow will take whatever is on the table,
a second referendum is so divisive and
no deal is so damaging.”
Snell, who has abstained on, or
opposed, several motions designed
to delay Brexit, said he and many other
Labour MPs wanted the chance to vote
for a deal. “ I would grit my teeth and
vote for mechanisms to stop a no deal,
but ... people asking us to vote to stop
no deal cannot ask us to keep doing it
blindly, for every madcap scheme.”
Unite’s leader, Len McCluskey, a key
ally of Corbyn, said yesterday Labour
had to back a pragmatic Brexit deal,
arguing that it appeared impossible to
stop a no deal and there was no path to
a second referendum. He said Labour
had to address how it would approach
negotiating trade deals if the UK had
left the EU after Labour gained power.
He told the BBC: “I believe, if we
haven’t left by 31 October, we should
respect the 2016 referendum, which
means leaving Europe but on a deal
that the 48% would be happy with –
that is access to a frictionless market
and customs union protecting jobs and
investment. The 52% would be happy
because of the policies that Labour
have to invest in their communities .”
It was not certain a no-confi dence
vote in Johnson would be successful.
Senior fi gures of other unions pri-
vately expressed disappointment
at McCluskey’s intervention, with
one saying it was not sticking to the
“agreed position”.‘We’ve got to make a
radical intervention
... we’ve got to get
this deal over the line’Stephen Kinnock
Labour MP Continued from page 1Corbyn invites Tory
rebels and other
leaders to oust PM
Nick Boles, but not any of the Inde-
pendent Group for Change UK MPs,
independent or other former Labour
MPs who have left the party. Grieve
said he would be “considering it with
colleagues” but several Conservative
would-be rebels told the Guardian
they could not contemplate a national
unity government that made Corbyn
prime minister.
In his letter, Corbyn said: “This gov-
ernment has no mandate for no deal,
and the 2016 EU referendum provided
no mandate for no deal. I therefore
intend to table a vote of no confi dence
at the earliest opportunity when we
can be confi dent of success.
“Following a successful vote of
no confi dence in the government, I
would then, as leader of the opposi-
tion, seek the confi dence of the house
for a strictly time-limited temporary
government with the aim of calling a
general election, and securing the nec-
essary extension of article 50 to do so.”
He said he was off ering talks with
MPs across the parties to build sup-
port for a vote of no confi dence in the
government, although he did not say
when it would be brought. The Labour
leadership’s argument is that if MPs are
serious about stopping no deal then
they will have to get behind his plan.
The opposition could attempt an
immediate vote in the fi rst week of
September in the hope an election
could be fi tted in before Brexit dead-
line day of 31 October, but it is not clear
there is enough support from Tory
backbenchers for this to be successful.
Corbyn’s letter came on a dramaticless likely to off er concessions. Speak-
ing live on Facebook, while answering
pre-selected questions from the pub-
lic, Johnson conceded that the chances
of a no-deal Brexit were now becoming
more likely, while dismissing the idea
that MPs would be able to stop him.
In a sign that Whitehall preparations
were stepping up, the Department for
Health and Social Care announced a
£25m contract to set up an “express
freight service” to deliver medicines
and medical products into the coun-
try in the event of no deal, potentially
lasting for up to two years.
MPs are deeply divided over how
and whether it is possible to stop no
deal but most Conservatives battling
that outcome would rather start with
legislative options to prevent a crash-
out. The primary method would be
to amend legislation to mandate the
prime minister to seek an extension.
What the Tories refer to as
the “nuclear option” is a vote of
confi dence , which could bring down
the government and give rebels 14 days
to form a new administration. They
are also looking at the possibility of
trying to use this period to force John-
son to seek an extension from the EU,
without ousting him from No 10.
If no MP can win a confi dence vote
in the fortnight after the fi rst vote, then
a general election is triggered. John-
son refused yesterday to rule out the
idea that he could simply schedule an
election for after 31 October.
“I think the British public have had
a lot of elections and electoral events,”
he said when asked if would call one
for the days after Brexit. “There was
the election in 2015, the referendum in
2016, another election in 2017. I think
what they want us to do is get on and
deliver Brexit. I never tire of telling you
that’s what we’re going to do.”Journal Martin Kettle Page 1
Journal Leader comment Page 2 day in parliamentary recess as Johnson
ramped up rhetoric against MPs who
are working to block no deal.
Johnson was accused of echoing
the rhetoric of the second world war
as he said some MPs were in “terrible
collaboration” with the EU to prevent
the UK leaving on October 31.
His comments were an apparent
swipe at Philip Hammond, the for-
mer chancellor who on Tuesday wrote
with 19 colleagues to the prime minis-
ter accusing him of setting the bar too
high for a deal with the EU and warning
that crashing out without a deal would
be a betrayal of the referendum result
One Conservative MP, Guto Bebb,
said Johnson’s language was “despic-
able” and “absolutely disgraceful” in
light of threats made to some MPs over
the issue of Brexit and the murder of
Labour’s Jo Cox. However, Downing
Street sources said Johnson had simply
been trying to make the point that the
EU was “looking at what is happening
here and getting the entirely wrong
message that parliament is somehow
going to block Brexit on October 31”,
which he claims will make Brussels▲ Jeremy Corbyn’s letter threw down
the gauntlet to the opposition partiesРЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS