Jo Stevens quits shadow cabinet over Corbyn's Brexit stance
Shadow Welsh secretary Jo Stevens tells Jeremy Corbyn that as a "passionate European" she thinks leaving is a "terrible mistake".
Friday 27 January 2017 17:12, UK
A member of Jeremy Corbyn's top team has resigned in order to defy the Labour leader's order not to "block" the bill to trigger Article 50 and start Brexit.
Jo Stevens, the shadow Welsh secretary, said in a letter to the party leader that as a "passionate European" she thought leaving the EU was a "terrible mistake".
Her decision deepens the divisions within the party, and follows the
Sky News understands that while the shadow cabinet are expected to toe the party line next week, those in junior posts who go against Mr Corbyn's order will not be asked to resign, in a breach of protocol.
Three other junior frontbenchers have said they would vote against the bill - challenging the leader to sack them.
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."
Two party whips, Jeff Smith and Thangam Debbonaire, and junior transport spokesman Daniel Zeichner have said they will vote against the 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 voting on EU withdrawal 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'?"
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 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 Mr Corbyn, asked about whether frontbenchers who defied the whip would be sacked, said: "I wouldn't assume anything but the normal expectations stand."