Ealing's MPs Refuse to Back 'Hardest of Hard Brexits'

All three borough MPs defy party whip on Article 50 Bill

The three MPs who represent constituencies in the borough of Ealing have all voted against triggering Article 50 in the House of Commons this Wednesday (1 February).

Stephen Pound (Ealing North), Virendra Sharma (Ealing Southall) and Rupa Huq (Ealing Central and Acton) all defied the three-line whip from Jeremy Corbyn requiring all Labour MPs to support the Bill which, nevertheless, achieved a large majority. The three Ealing seats all voted by a large margin to remain in the European Union in the referendum last June.

Rupa Huq in parliament

The government's European Union Bill passed by 498 votes to 114 with the SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats opposing along with 47 Labour MPs and Tory ex-chancellor Ken Clarke.

Dr Huq told the Evening Standard before the vote that opposing the Bill was the right thing to do given that 70% of her constituents voted Remain. She said, "My issue is not with Jeremy, who I'm happy to serve under, it's with Theresa May's hardest of hard Brexits."

In a letter to constituents who had written to her about the vote Dr Huq said:

'' I want to assure you that I will do everything in my power to oppose a damaging, hard Brexit. If we must leave the consequences will be to mitigate the effects on my constituents. On my own fate as Shadow Home Affairs Minister I'm a team player and I am happy to continue serving. I will not be resigning my frontbench role and will work hard now to make the best I can to make the best of this regrettable situation.'' 

Stephen Pound said in parliament, "Although the foul, mephitic fug of Brexit has cast the land into shadow, life must go on."

Virendra Sharma said, "I will not vote to trigger Article 50 without a real plan for the future. I will not vote for a Brexit blank cheque."

Dr Huq is currently a shadow minister home affairs whereas the other two MPs do not hold frontbench responsibilities in the Labour party. Normally it would be expected that an opposition minister would resign having voted against a three-line whip from their party. Two other shadow junior ministers - Dawn Butler and Tulip Siddiq - have announced their resignations. Unlike full shadow cabinet members junior ministers like Dr Huq get no uplift in their salary not a 20% uplift as previously reported. The party's chief whip Nick Brown is to produce a report into the Brexit rebellion and Deputy Leader John McDonnell told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that while the parliamentary convention will apply for shadow cabinet ministers it will be left to the recommendation of the chief whip what to do about junior ministers.

Keir Starmer, Labour's Brexit Minister, has said that no punishment has been determined for rebel Labour MPs and promised that any disputes would be resolved “collegiately”. It is understood that several members of the shadow frontbench argued for a free vote on the issue.

Virendra Sharma

Theresa May has said that she intends to trigger Article 50 before the end of March despite the recent Supreme Court decision to endorse a previous ruling that Parliament must be consulted.

After Article 50 is triggered, the UK will remain a member for a period of two years before breaking away entirely from the EU. After this there will be a period of transition in which EU regulations will continue to apply but will be gradually replaced in some cases by domestic legislation.

February 10, 2017 ( updated)