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Molly Scott Cato MEP, Bristol’s MEP and The Green Party’s speaker on Brexit, has accused Conservatives and Labour of using Brexit ‘as a weapon with which to fight internal Party battles’. The accusation comers as the Brexit secretary, David Davis, meets the chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, to begin the first full round of Brexit negotiations and follows a series of briefings over the weekend suggesting a cabinet ‘at war’ [1] Dr Scott Cato said:
“It is clear the Conservative and Labour Parties are both hopelessly divided over Brexit. The prospect of leaving the EU is the single most significant decision this country has taken in my lifetime; it is reprehensible that it is being used as a weapon with which to fight internal Party battles.
“The destructive shambles we find ourselves in as a nation is thanks almost entirely to the divisions inside the Tory Party, together with the savage and failed politics of austerity. And it is clear that many members of the cabinet are currently more interested in the scramble to be the next resident of Number 10 than they are on negotiations in Brussels.
“But equally shameful is the fact Labour are whipping MPs into supporting the hard-line Brexit being pushed by the Tories. The ‘Lexit’ wing of the Labour party is a throwback to the socialism of the 1980s and will do nothing to protect rights or jobs in modern Britain.While Labour are running scared of their pro-Brexit northern voters, the reality is that these are the very people who will lose the most from the economic consequences of a hard Brexit. Rather than representing them, Labour politicians are abandoning them by colluding in the Tories’ bungled Brexit.
“Those MPs who genuinely want to put their country first must now join forces in a cross-party alliance and work to oppose leaving the Single Market and Customs Union. They must also rally to block the deeply flawed Repeal Bill until we know the terms of the Brexit deal. At that stage, there must also be a ratification referendum, offering people the chance to vote for the deal on offer or to remain in the EU.”
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