If Boris agrees a Brexit deal, Labour should vote it down

It now seems more likely than ever that the UK will leave with no deal at the end of the year. But let’s imagine for a moment that I’m wrong and the UK and the EU manage to overcome their substantial differences. It would then have to be voted on in Parliament – and Labour should vote it down.

Why? Because the deal put before the Commons would not be between Brexit and Remain. That ship has long since sailed. It would instead be between the thin deal Boris Johnson will have agreed with the EU and the choice of leaving with no deal whatsoever. Whichever way Parliament votes, we leave the transitional arrangements on 1 January in full. So if Labour vote against the deal, they would not be ‘denying Brexit’; they would, in fact, be tacitly voting for the kind of Brexit that the most hardcore Brexiteers are after. In voting down the deal, they would probably be marching through the lobby with Steve Baker and other ERG types.