JEREMY Corbyn is not in hock to trade union leaders over Brexit and the leadership is hoping to come to a “common position” on a second referendum by the start of Westminster’s summer recess on July 25, his spokesman has insisted.
The declaration came after Labour grandee Dame Margaret Becket claimed unions and people around the leader were preventing the UK party shifting to support Remain in another poll; a claim dismissed as "laughable" by his spokesman.
The former Foreign Secretary told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: "I'm beginning to think some of them do actually want Britain to leave the EU no matter what.
"They don't give a toss about what the British people now want or what Labour members think is in the country's interests.
"They just are determined to make sure we don't do anything to impede Britain leaving, if necessary with no-deal," argued Dame Margaret.
She made clear she did not believe Mr Corbyn was "the stumbling block" but added: “There are people very close to him with great influence with him, who are and have been from the beginning passionately opposed."
But her claims were rubbished by the leader’s spokesman, who denied Mr Corbyn was "under the control" of Unite boss Len McCluskey; although he stressed trade unions were a “vital part” of the party.
When asked directly if he was the problem, the spokesman also denied this, saying: "There are many people around Jeremy Corbyn."
He went on: “We're all familiar with the trope about good kings and their bad advisers. The idea that Jeremy doesn't make his own decisions or decide what he wants to do is laughable.
"Jeremy Corbyn has his own views and takes his own decisions and decisions are not taken for him by anybody."
The spokesman explained the party had the “building blocks” of a policy on Brexit and the Labour leader was working to "find a common position" around which the party could unite.
"His way of leading is to try and bring people with him and find common ground and that's what he is doing here."
He also said he expected a conclusion to the consultation process "in the next few weeks," indicating this would be before the recess.
The spokesman made clear the party respected the 2016 referendum result but there was a "variety of different outcomes" as circumstances were changing. Asked if it was possible to respect the 2016 poll while campaigning to Remain in a confirmatory public vote, he replied: "Exactly what the circumstances are of any referendum would be depends on circumstances which we don't know at the moment."
Asked if it was problematic that the Scottish Labour Party was now taking a different view from the UK Party on Brexit – early this month it backed a second EU referendum with a commitment to campaign to keep Britain in the EU - the spokesman replied: “No. The Scottish Labour Party is entirely autonomous and it’s absolutely normal for the Scottish Labour Party and the Welsh Labour Party may take varying positions depending on the circumstances in their nations.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here