Labour conference has been debating the EU referendum this morning and there was not a scintilla of indication that the party wants to do anything but vigorously campaign stay in. The main issue raised was workers’ rights — Alan Johnson, who is leading Labour’s campaign to remain in the EU, said ‘there is no progressive case for leaving the EU’ and pointed towards the Trade Union Bill as an example of how the government doesn’t care about this issue:
‘We know how this government feels about workers’ rights. The trade union bill did not come from Europe. That nasty, spiteful, repressive bill would not have emanated from any other mainstream, right of centre party anywhere in Europe other than the Conservative party in Britain.’
Johnson also urged Labour to run a campaign from the bottom up, one that ‘has to start now, not at some unspecific time determined by David Cameron’. Maria Eagle, the shadow defence secretary, also spoke during the debate and said Britain must remain in the EU to hold its place on the world stage:
‘We have a unique opportunity and a great responsibility to use our position in the world to help solve problems, not turn our backs on them. We should not spurn that opportunity. We should not shirk that responsibility.’
Pat McFadden, the shadow Europe minister, argued that Labour needs to offer leadership during this election — instead of relying on the Tories and other parties:
‘It may be strange to be talking about leadership when our party has suffered one of the worst defeats in our history. We are as far from power as we have been for many many years. Even after losing we are in a position to exercise some leadership in this campaign. Ukip want to take our country back, I say take our country forward…it falls to us to exercise leadership in this campaign’.
A variety of delegates from constituency Labour parties spoke, the majority of them were first time attendees and younger than the usual speakers at conference. A doctor from Croydon South attending for the first time told conference ‘we cannot afford to be out of Europe’, while Euan Ryan from Edinburgh said Labour must convince voters that the referendum is about ‘economic prosperity instead of shooting ourselves in the foot’ and warned against the cold language he saw from the Better Together campaign during the independence referendum. Easily the most hyperbolic comment came from Sioux Blair-Jordan, a Labour activist, who warned:
‘If Cameron does his Bill of Rights, we might as well walk into the gas chamber today.’
But generally, the activists were reasonable in their speeches and motivated to argue for staying in the EU. Any talk of a party split appeared to be overstated and it appears the party will not struggle in finding activists to hit the stump with the referendum campaign begins.
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