Brexit: Labour rebellion on Jeremy Corbyn's Article 50 stance grows
While the shadow cabinet will be expected to toe the party line, those in junior positions have not been asked to resign.
Friday 27 January 2017 14:23, UK
Members of Jeremy Corbyn's frontbench will defy an order to vote for Brexit - challenging the leader to sack them.
Sky News understands while the shadow cabinet will be expected to toe the party line next week, those in junior positions have not been asked to resign in a breach of protocol.
One shadow minister told Sky News: "There's a possibility they won't be forced to.
"Most people will say that makes a mockery of the whips office but we are breaking new ground in politics every day."
London MP Tulip Siddiq , saying she would not vote to trigger Britain's departure from the EU, joining some 60 other MPs expected to rebel.
Two party whips, Jeff Smith and Thangam Debbonaire, and junior transport spokesman Daniel Zeichner have said they will vote against the Brexit bill, but have not tendered their resignations.
The longstanding convention is that all members of a party must attend and vote for their party's policy if a three-line whip is imposed.
The first stage of is next Wednesday.
Mr Zeichner - whose Cambridge constituency voted for Remain - told his local newspaper the party "understand exactly why I'm doing what I'm doing and it's for them to decide what to do next."
At least two shadow cabinet ministers are understood to be weighing up whether to resign and vote against Article 50, despite pressure to avoid damaging splits ahead of two key by-elections in Copeland and Stoke.
"It has a much bigger impact when a shadow cabinet minister resigns so there is a responsibility", one source said.
"But when you're on the cusp of getting into government, becoming a minister and getting your hands on the levers of power its different.
"We're very far from that and that's going through a lot of people's minds as they agonise about this decision."
Shadow business secretary Clive Lewis, who was wavering, indicated last night that he would now support the bill in order to press for amendments which would "hold the Government to account".
Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary, warned colleagues in a radio interview: "You have to remember how this looks to people in post-industrial Britain, former mining areas, the North, the Midlands, South Wales - it would look as if elites were refusing to listen to them. It would be wrong.
"How could MPs vote for a referendum and then turn around and say 'It went the wrong way so we are ignoring it'?"
Labour MPs have proposed a number of amendments to try and tie the Government to tariff-free trade, tough policies on tax evasion, workers' rights and the status of EU citizens already in Britain.
Dozens of backbenchers are expected to vote against the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill in any circumstances.
If the amendments fail to get support in Parliament, more frontbench resignations are expected at the next stage.
A spokesman for Jeremy Corbyn, when asked whether frontbenchers who defied the whip would be sacked, said: "I wouldn't assume anything but the normal expectations stand".