Today will expose those using Brexit merely as a political stick

Yesterday was a disastrous and humiliating day for Labour back-bench agitators and FBPE-hashtaggers, as the Tory ‘rebels’ on whom they publicly pinned their hopes accepted a transparently-false compromise from the government.

Theresa May promised things she knows she can’t deliver – and the ‘rebels’ have no excuse for now knowing she knows. But they accepted it anyway and backed down – leaving the likes of Chuka Umunna high and dry:

This Tory cowardice – and tiny group of ridiculous Labour rebels – allowed the government to defeat, fairly comfortably, the only realistic amendments on the table to hold the government accountable and ensure Britain gets a reasonable deal when we leave the EU next year.

But today the unrealistic amendment goes to a vote – the demand for Britain to join the European Economic Area (EEA).

This amendment has no hope of passing – even if a few Tories do actually rebel, rather than talking tearfully about rebelling and then backing down – because Labour MPs whose constituents strongly voted leave will feel obliged if not forced to vote against it.

So those who bang gongs about it and claim it could pass ‘if only Jeremy would back it’ are talking nonsense and must know it. So the build-up to the vote will expose beyond doubt those who are cynically using the Brexit issue in the hope of doing political damage to Corbyn’s leadership and Labour’s electoral prospects.

Who’s it going to be?

The names on the list are likely to come from a short list of the usual suspects – but there may be enough to create a centrist version of the SKWAWKBOX’s famous ‘gammon’ meme. What should we call the faces on that list? Quorn? Veal? Quinoa?

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