I rise to support Lords amendment 51 and amendment (a) to it. I do so from first principles, because it is the responsibility of every Member of this House to come here and champion, defend and represent the best interests of their constituency and our country. In this generation-defining moment, there is no more important time for us to vote at every opportunity in the way that we think will best protect our constituents. Given the manner of the negotiations, the way the Government are conducting Brexit and the contempt with which they have treated the House at various points as we have sought to influence Brexit, we have to look on the Order Paper for every opportunity to shift the centre of gravity of debate away from a hard Brexit, dictated by a minority group in a minority Government, towards a softer Brexit that delivers the mandate of the referendum to leave the European Union but in a way that protects jobs and livelihoods.
The truth is that there is no such thing as a jobs-first Brexit outside the single market and the customs union. That presents the Labour party and the Conservative party with some political dilemmas, but we were all sent here to make our constituents’ jobs safer, not to make our jobs easier. The evidence is overwhelming that if this country crashes out with a hard Brexit or, worse, if we are outside the single market and without the benefits that the single market provides, that will damage jobs and hamper livelihoods, and we will not be able to solve all the underlying problems creating the swamp of despair and hopelessness that led to people to voting for Brexit.
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If there is one thing worse than no hope, it is false hope and a false prospectus. There are some who peddle the myth that if we just pander to people’s grievances and prejudices on immigration by pulling ourselves out of the single market and the customs union, things in our country will be better. The truth is that, when it comes to tackling austerity, funding our public services and tackling the gross inequality that blights our nation, dealing with those problems will be a million times harder outside the single market and the customs union.
The European economic area is not perfect, but we should not let perfect be the enemy of good. From listening to what Conservative Members and some of my colleagues have said, I fear that if we continue to kick this down the road and hope that, before the moment of exit, a chance will arise to stop the hardest
of hard Brexits, we may find that we have missed the opportunity. I am not going to miss such an opportunity today: I will support their lordships on Lords amendment 51, and I will support our Front-Bench amendment, but I urge every Member of the House to put their country first, not simply pander to the pressure being exerted on all of us.