Victory for Labour over uncertainty for EU nationals – but what did it achieve?
The Labour Party has won a vote in Parliament calling on the Government to allow EU citizens currently living in the UK permission to remain.
The trouble is, as this was an Opposition Day debate, most of the Conservative Party didn’t bother to turn up and vote.
I’m told five did – including Boris Johnson – and most, if not all, of them supported the Labour Party motion.
One cannot help but wonder whether the claim that the government “cannot now retreat on this” was made more in hope than expectation – but let’s hope for the best, eh?
If the Tories do allow EU citizens, residing lawfully in the UK prior to the EU Referendum, the right to stay and explicitly rule out their use as ‘bargaining chips’, Mr Burnham will be able to claim it as another victory for Labour, of course.
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A victory is a victory which is better than another self-inflicted wound, I guess. We can claim the kudos for it which makes a change. Amongst my friends, it’ll be popular because of relationships and marriages.
I’m just relieved that someone in Labour other than just Corbyn decided to get on with doing their jobs for the first time in a fortnight. Scoring an open goal may sound unimpressive, but the PLP willingly spurned opportunity after opportunity to attack the Tories and to put anti-Austerity ideas on the agenda since the referendum, so this is still a considerable step up.
I think all of the new Shadow Cabinet were getting on with their jobs, in fairness. Corbyn and McDonnell were the most visible, but there was this from Andy Burnham, I saw a speech by Rebecca Long-Bailey, Debbie Abrahams was getting on with work in the background (as seen on Twitter)…
But the other 170+ have been sitting back with their feet up, as you say.