At the same time as fighting off a conspiracy to remove the Labour Party from the scene altogether it is important that Labour develops some kind of coherence on the so-called Brexit question. It is true that Brexit will end the free movement of labour but it will also put pay to McDonnell’s wish list. It will end Britain’s membership of the single market: there no point in renaming this as “access” to the single market to get round the problem. As for the City, it will inevitably lose it’s passport outside the EU. Brexit is, above all, a response to Cameron’s failure to negotiate suitable opt-outs from EU, single market rules. Damned if they stay , damned if they leave, City of London interests have placed all their hopes in a domino effect of referenda across Europe leading the collapse of the EU project itself. That’s why neocons like Gove, who see the EU in the same terms as they saw the Soviet Union, are now to the fore. Apart from as this wrecking project, Brexit will never happen. Obviously, on that basis, there is no difficulty in arguing for remain. As for the City of London, it’s future lies in its transformation through the deal with China which some in the British political class appeared to support but which cannot happen until we have formally committed to not leaving i.e. not invoking article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty.
The free movement of people around the European Union will end with Brexit, John McDonnell has said as he outlined an economic blueprint for Labour to prepare the nation for departure.
In These New Times 