No Confidence in Her Majesty’s Government

Geraint Davies Excerpts

Wednesday 16th January 2019 Commons Chamber

[Geraint Davies (Swansea West) (Lab/Co-op)]

Margaret Thatcher famously quoted Attlee in saying that referendums were the instruments of “demagogues and dictators” because Hitler used them to adopt supreme power and, basically, invade other countries after rearming. My reason for having no confidence in the Prime Minister is not simply because she has doubled the debt and created poverty and social injustice, but because she thinks the advisory referendum is an unconditional mandate to Brexit at any cost, in any circumstances, without consulting the people on whether this represents their reasonable expectations.

The people were offered more money and more trade, and control over their laws and over migration, but in fact they have not got any of those things. We will have to pay £39 billion. There will be a squeezing of the economy, fewer jobs and less trade. We will not be with team EU when negotiating with big players such as China. Northern Ireland will be an open border for immigration via Dublin. We will not control our immigration, and if we did, we would in any case just switch from a cultural neighbour to more distant immigration.

There is no evidence that the people of Britain support the deal. It is a betrayal of conservatism because it moves us away from our most established market in the world and breaks up the Union. It is a betrayal of socialism because we will have a smaller cake to divide more equally. It is bad for our economy, our security, our environment and our common values.

It is my view that I have no confidence in the Prime Minister because she has no confidence in the people to make a judgment on the deal she has delivered. If they want it, let us go ahead. If we do not have that vote, we will just wait another two years in the transition period, when we could in fact have a vote on this, decide on reflection it is better for us all to remain and have two years sorting out this country, rather than having this situation where we just talk about Brexit and Britain is burning around us.

Yes, there will be some anger if we have a people’s vote, but I put it to the House that there will be absolute rage if we do not and Brexit goes forward. People voted to leave; they did not vote to leave their jobs. Brexit is now being seen warts and all, and we are also seeing that Europe is a much more virtuous place than before. It was a massive defeat last night. Yes, the Prime Minister needs to look cross-party at all the options. If we cannot agree any deal, let us put the deal we have to the people, and they can decide whether to continue.

In the meantime, I am calling for a general election, but if we do not get a general election, we should have a people’s vote. The Labour party should stand up for remain, and when we win that, there should be an election because we will have had a Government who were elected on a strong and stable Brexit but are weak and unstable. We will then deliver a Labour Government and a better Britain.