In praise of Labour’s Brexit rebels

So this is what a principled politician looks like. They can be hard to spot these days, but last night, in parliament, we saw four of them in action. Kate Hoey, Frank Field, John Mann and Graham Stringer. Four Labour MPs who, despite knowing they would get flak from both Corbynistas and centrists, despite knowing the Stalinist sections of left-wing Twitter would shriek for their deselection, despite knowing they would be paraded online as ‘Tory stooges’ whom all good Labourites have a duty to despise, nonetheless voted with their consciences and rejected an amendment to Theresa May’s trade bill that could have kept Brexit Britain entangled in a customs union with the EU

They are being credited with saving May’s bacon. After all, if May had lost to the rebel Remainers who pushed the amendment, it’s likely the government would have unravelled. Brexiteer Tories were whispering about ‘no confidence’ if May had failed to see off this amendment that would have forced Britain to sign up to a customs union if we still haven’t reached an agreement on frictionless trade by 21 January 2019.