European Union (Withdrawal) (No. 2) Act 2019 (Rule of Law)

Liz McInnes Excerpts

Monday 9th September 2019 Commons Chamber

[Ian Austin (Dudley North) (Ind)]

The part of the motion that I want to speak to is about politicians upholding the rule of law, and I have to say right at the outset that I think it is absolutely incredible to hear the Leader of the Opposition lecturing anybody else—[Interruption]—lecturing anybody else about observing the rule of law. [Interruption.] Labour Members have already started moaning, but they ought to listen. [Interruption.] They ought to listen; they are going to have to get used to this, because the points I am going to raise are the questions they will have to answer in an election campaign. They will have to explain to their voters and their constituents, and the people of this country, why they think someone with an appalling record like the Leader of the Opposition is fit not just—

[Liz McInnes (Heywood and Middleton) (Lab)]

Why don’t you go and sit somewhere else?

[Ian Austin]

The hon. Lady asks why I don’t go and sit somewhere else. I am sitting here—[Interruption.] I am standing here—[Interruption.]

[Liz McInnes]

Why?

[Ian Austin]

I will explain why: I am standing here because I was elected—[Interruption.] Because I think—[Interruption.]

--- Later in debate ---

[Ian Austin]

I am not going to argue that point, Mr Speaker.

This is a debate about whether politicians can be trusted to obey the rule of law, and there is not a single Labour figure in the past—not a single one—who would have backed violent street protest, as the shadow Chancellor did when he called for “insurrection” to “bring down” the Government or praised rioters who he said had “kicked the s-h-i-t” out of the Conservative party’s offices. [Interruption.] The hon. Member for Heywood and Middleton (Liz McInnes) might not want to hear it, but I will tell her this—

[Liz McInnes]

Why don’t you go and stand over there?

[Ian Austin]

I have explained why I am not going over there, but I will tell the hon. Lady this.

[Liz McInnes]

You’re not welcome here.

[Ian Austin]

I am here because voters in Dudley North sent me here to represent them, and none of my views have changed on any of the things I stand up for—decency in politics, the rule of law—and everybody in Dudley knew exactly what I thought of these people at the last election. And I will tell the hon. Lady this: I will make absolutely certain that she is going to have to answer to her voters for these points at the next election.

[Liz McInnes]

How are you going to do that?

[Ian Austin]

We’ll see.

[Liz McInnes]

You’re going to have to answer to yours.

[Ian Austin]

Don’t worry about that.

No other senior figure in the Labour party’s history would have joked about lynching a female Member of Parliament. These people do not believe in the rule of law abroad, either. They always back the wrong side, whether it is the IRA, Hamas or Hezbollah, who they describe as friends. No previous Labour leader would have supported brutal totalitarian dictatorships like the ones in Cuba or Venezuela that have no regard whatsoever for the rule of law. No previous Labour leadership would have allowed a party with a proud history of fighting racial prejudice to have been poisoned by racism—which is what has happened under these people—against Jewish people to the extent that Members have been arrested on suspicion of racial hatred and the party itself has become the first in history to be investigated under equalities laws by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. These people and the people around them are a million miles away from the traditional mainstream, decent politics of the Labour party. They have poisoned what was once a great party with extremism, and they cannot be trusted with the institutions that underpin our democracy. They are completely unfit to lead the Labour party, let alone our country.