Greens warn Labour will ‘never be forgiven’ if they usher in Brexit

Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn. Photograph: PA/PA Wire. - Credit: PA

Jeremy Corbyn has been told his party may never be forgiven if it works with the Conservatives to bring in a ‘hard-right Brexit’.

That was the warning from Scottish Green co-convener Patrick Harvie, as he told party activists to ‘get into campaign mode’ in case the UK takes part in European Parliament elections next month.

With Theresa May seeking an extension of the Brexit process until the end of June, European leaders may insist that the UK elects MEPs in the May 23 ballot.

alks were taking place between the Conservatives and Labour in a bid to find a way through the deadlock, but these have now stalled.

And while Downing Street has offered further talks over the weekend, Labour insisted the prime minister had to come forward with ‘genuine changes’.


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But Harvie said that Labour ‘even now seems willing to strike a deal with the government they should be opposing to drag us out of Europe’.

Speaking at the Scottish Green conference in Edinburgh, he said: ‘We are now seeing the threat of a Labour/Tory deal to finally complete Brexit and take us out of Europe.’

With Labour and the Conservatives having worked together before in the run-up to the Scottish independence referendum in 2014, Harvie added: ‘Better Together are together again. I think we need to give a very clear message to the Labour Party – do not take up this absurd offer of sharing the blame for Brexit.

‘Do not trust a word you hear from a Tory party that doesn’t even know who its next leader will be, and do not expect to be forgiven if you facilitate this hard-right Brexit project.

‘A People’s Vote or a simple revoke, these are the only two options left.’

He recalled that Scotland ‘voted overwhelmingly to remain in the European Union’ in 2016 and said that since then ‘we’ve been cut out and ignored by the UK Government at every turn’.

He hit out at the Conservatives at Westminster for trying to avoid having European elections.

Harvie said: ‘This isn’t just a fear of democracy, the same fear that is leading them to try to refuse giving the public their final say on Brexit itself, it is also an enormous missed opportunity for a debate about the issues that matter.’