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September 24, 2019 - 5:58pm
I sat down with Stephen Kinnock MP at Labour Party Conference in Brighton, to discuss his prospective Brexit deal and the future of the Labour party. He is emerging as a leading figure within the party for re-establishing its core values and respecting the referendum result.
On a possible Brexit deal, Kinnock calculates he has “a solid two dozen” Labour MPs who can support the cross-party package. If the DUP can be satisfied on the backstop, he thinks it could pass (“I’ve never met a Labour MP who is worried about the backstop.”)
On the future of the Labour Party, he said the party needs “a clear message to our communitarian heartlands that we believe in the value of place.”
“The tragedy is that unfortunately because the Labour party has been, in essence, run by the People’s Vote campaign in the last 12 months, the decision was taken to walk away from those cross-party talks.”
On the danger of cancelling Brexit
“It would be a betrayal of our historic mission as a party if we said in addition to having ignored and left you behind… we turn around now and say you’re not going to have that [vote respected] either.”
On immigration
“We have to make absolutely clear that people who raise concerns about immigration and the impact that it’s had on their communities, the fast-paced change, without anything like the consultation, the integration, the investment, in making it work. To turn around and accuse those people of being xenophobes or bigots is completely and utterly unacceptable.”
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