Hampstead and Kilburn MP Tulip Siddiq has said she is willing to leave the shadow cabinet to vote against Brexit following the Supreme Court decision today that the matter must be put before Parliament.
She joined Hornsey and Wood Green’s Catherine West and Holborn and St Pancras’s Keir Starmer in lauding the court’s judgement that Prime Minister Theresa May cannot begin exit talks with the EU until MPs and peers have assented.
Ms Siddiq, whose constituency voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU, said the decision was “a victory for those who believe in the sovereignty of our Parliament”.
She said: “I will remain unsatisfied until there is total clarity over safeguards to protect the security, residential status, and living standards of those I am so proud to represent.”
Pledging to look “carefully” at any amendments submitted to the Brexit bill by Labour, she added: “75 per cent of my constituents voted to remain and I intend to represent them throughout these debates and when voting on Article 50. I have been clear that if that means stepping down from my frontbench position in order to do so, then it is something I am willing to do.”
Catherine West, meanwhile, said she warmly welcomed the court’s decision – and also stressed that Parliament must be sovereign – because “hard line Brexiteers” and the “right wing media” were dictating the form of Brexit.
She said: “Hard Brexit is a huge threat to both workers’ rights and the national economy, as well as an abandonment of all the progress we have made around issues such as tackling international crime, terrorism and climate change.
“Theresa May has stated that her plan for Brexit will deliver a ‘better deal for ordinary working people’.
“Yet we have seen the pound fall to its lowest level in over thirty years against the dollar; major companies including JP Morgan, HSBC and UBS have already announced thousands of jobs will be relocated to Paris and Frankfurt; the chancellor himself has admitted that Government finances will be at least £122 billion worse off in the next three years and inflation is set to rise.”
Ms West, whose constituency voted 81.5pc to remain in the EU, said the best way for her to represent the people within it was by voting against Brexit.
She added that it is critical to counter “poisonous rhetoric”, soaring hate crimes and a “wave of xenophobic nationalism” while pushing for a “progressive relationship” with the EU.
Holborn and St Pancras MP Keir Starmer, who is also Labour’s shadow Brexit secretary, said “stakes are high” after the decision.
But he added: “Labour accepts and respects the referendum result and will not frustrate the process.”
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