Another day, another front-bench resignation from Labour. After Tulip Siddiq quit the front-bench over Jeremy Corbyn’s decision to impose a three-line whip on the Article 50 vote, Jo Stevens has today followed suit.
The shadow secretary for Wales has resigned from her post after coming to the conclusion she could not reconcile herself to voting to trigger article 50 as she believed leaving the EU would be ‘a terrible mistake’. Stevens’ departure is particularly striking as Wales was actually more pro-Brexit than the UK as a whole. However, her seat (Cardiff central) is a Labour/Liberal Democrat marginal that voted heavily to Remain. It follows that this is another example of Labour politicians being pulled two ways. Had Stevens agreed to vote for Article 50, it would give the Lib Dems — who have clearly defined themselves as the pro-EU party — easy ammunition in any subsequent elections. But it points, again, to the fact that Labour are in a no man’s land on Brexit — neither for or against it as a party.
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