“Our members are Remain, our values are Remain, our hearts are Remain”

Labour’s Deputy Leader goes full Remoan

Tom Watson yesterday, credit YouTube/The Guardian

Vote Labour, get Merkel, Macron, Juncker, Tusk, Barnier, Verhofstadt…

Yesterday at the one of the metropolitan citadels of Europhilia - the pro-Remain ‘Centre for European Reform’ in London - Labour’s Deputy Leader Tom Watson gave a speech in which he redefined Labour as the party of Remain.

There was no equivocation. Mr Watson claimed that Labour is the party of Remain, and he also backed another referendum – the so-called “Losers’ Vote”.

“The core values of the EU are internationalism, solidarity, freedom. They are British, Labour values. Our future doesn’t need to be Brexit. We can change our future, but only if Labour makes the case for it – and we must.”
“European is who we are and who we have always been. Our members are Remain. Our values are Remain. Our hearts are Remain. We need our Labour Party to be true to who we are and be loud and proud in support of Europe.”
“The only tool available to actually break this deadlock - we all know, even if we have not admitted it yet - is a public vote.”
- Labour Deputy Leader Tom Watson, 17 Jun 2019

Readers can watch the video below.

Credit : YouTube/The Guardian

Labour’s uncomfortable ‘Parliamentary arithmetic’

It is perfectly true that the majority of Labour voters nationally voted Remain. Unfortunately for Mr Watson, he must know that the majority of Labour MPs were elected from pro-Leave constituencies. He will also know that this was - to a significant degree - because the Party’s 2017 manifesto said that Labour would respect the result of the EU Referendum.

At the 2017 General Election, 159 (61%) of the 262 seats won by Labour voted Leave in the EU Referendum. Only 39% of Labour MPs were elected in constituencies where the electorate voted to remain in the European Union.

(Note: This is based on the detailed research by Professor Chris Hanretty of Royal Holloway University. There is a margin of error because the results were not declared by constituency, but this data is widely used as being the most accurate.)

Observations

This is not some Labour backbencher speaking. Nor is it a former frontbench Remainer such as Yvette Cooper. This is the current Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Tom Watson.

In any normal world, pronouncements such as these from the Deputy Leader of Her Majesty’s Official Opposition would be statements of agreed party policy. But we don’t live in a normal world. We live in world where a Marxist-led party of the left is trying to be all things to all voters.

If Labour joins the LibDems in becoming a Remain party, we would suggest that a great many Labour MPs will be at risk of losing their seats.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org continues to be party-neutral. Sadly we've given up trying to contact Labour Leave as they don't seem to want to engage with other pro-Brexit organisations, so we are unable to bring you their thoughts.

We'll leave you with one thought. Somehow "We'll keep the blue and yellow-starred flag flying here" just doesn't seem to have the same ring, does it?

HELP! We're struggling to keep going after two months of donations being around a quarter of normal, as a result of so many people giving to the Brexit Party. If you can help, quick and secure donation methods are below. Thank you to all those who have donated in recent days. We hope more readers can help out. Thank you.

[ Sources: CER | The Guardian | Professor Chris Hanretty, Royal Holloway University | Electoral Commission ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, 18 Jun 2019

Click here to go to our news headlines
And please scroll down for comments on the above article.

Something to say about this? Scroll down for reader comments

Since before the EU Referendum, Brexit Facts4EU.Org
has been the most prolific researcher and publisher of Brexit facts in the world.

Supported by MPs, MEPs, & other groups, our work has impact.

We think facts matter. Please donate today, so that we can continue to ensure a clean Brexit is finally delivered.

Any credit card user

Quick One-off

From £5 - £1,000

Monthly

From £3 per month

Paypal Users Only - Choose amount first

Quick One-off

Monthly

PLEASE NOTE IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO COMMENT : You can write your comment under any existing comments below. After you have clicked to preview your comment, you MUST then click on the CAPTCHA system and send you comment, for it to be published. Thank you!

Reader Comments 11

1. Not a Lemming , Tuesday, June 18, 2019, 06:22:

What's new? The leadership and the civil service have been like this since 2016. We have a useless, rudderless government, violent crime in London, marxists on the rempage, PC claptrap everywhere. Family under attack. Cash being phased out.
What has government done FOR the people or country in the last 10 years (especially)?

2. Butties , Tuesday, June 18, 2019, 06:30:

If the results were not declared by constituency how can Proff Hanratty make his conclusions, are their links to his research available?
REPLY FROM THE BREXIT FACTS4EU.ORG TEAM - Professor Hanretty has produced a sophisticated set of research drawing on several sources and complex statistical analyses. It is highly regarded across the board. The precise numbers can never be exact, but they are universally recognised as being accurate for the purposes of articles like this. The key point is that most Labour constituencies voted to leave the EU.

3. Catherine, Dollar , Tuesday, June 18, 2019, 07:49:

Adding to Facts4EU comments re Professor Hanretty's estimates, for 2016, the BBC and probably the PRofessor too were able to get break-down figures from the councils, and match them up. So the 2016 figures widely used have been double-checked (the estimates were barely changed once the data were in, as far as I remember).
Professor Hanretty's data, his methods and the basis on which he calculated his algorithms, are publicly available, you can download the lot.

4. Catherine, Dollar , Tuesday, June 18, 2019, 07:51:

PS to my comment re the transparency of Professor Hanretty's work, can I add a dig at our saintly CHancellor of the Exchequer, who doesn't think we should see the outrageous assumptions built into the Treasury's Brexit forecasts. Opacity is total.

5. Matthew, London , Tuesday, June 18, 2019, 08:25:

Hey all you current political parties in parliament. it's getting really crowded on the Remain side, isn't it? What about trying to represent your voters first, before you come up with any more 'brilliant' tactical, political ideas?

6. tarine , Tuesday, June 18, 2019, 10:28:

They will be caught inside the EU's future communist policies. Any Labour voter current or past should reflect very carefully on what stringent controls by those that, curently control the EU from Brussles, will enforce upon those member states in the future. It will agressive in its design and in its development, and supressive much as might be viewed in China and North Korea. I kid you not.

7. Patrick F , Tuesday, June 18, 2019, 14:45:

The EU core values 'internationalism, solidarity, freedom' cited by Tom Watson are not Remain values. They are Leave values.

8. kzb , Tuesday, June 18, 2019, 16:44:

But was Tom Watson speaking in his personal capacity, or was he stating official Labour party policy ?
Just because Watson wants it does not make it policy.
Also, I am old enough to remember when it was the LEFT of the party that was anti-EEC membership. Jeremy has remained true to that as well.

9. Steven , Tuesday, June 18, 2019, 17:01:

Patrick F, I would disagree with your notion of internationalism being a core value of Leave. It certainly isn’t one of mine and I view the EU as being one of the world’s prime constructs of internationalism/globalism. Indeed, there is little doubt that one of the most important reasons why many British politicians from the days of Macmillan and Heath onwards joined our country to the Common Market/EEC/EC/EU was due to their lack of faith in our country and our people’s abilities to make it a success and their embrace of internationalism. I would prefer to see EUropean countries co operating freely with each other and De Gaulle’s vision of a Europe des Patries become a reality instead of our countries being merged into a soulless mega-state.

10. Colin Wilson , Wednesday, June 19, 2019, 18:04:

Tom Watson....
68.2% of your constituents voted leave, you also voted to trigger article 50.

11 comments, page 1 of 2

Add comment:

Please note: Your email address is never published unless you choose to enter it.