Major disagreements between Labour party officials over access to the single market and proposed boundary changes are plunging the Labour Party in Wales into “a state of deep isolation” from its UK counterpart.
A statement issued today by the Welsh Government, pertaining to the First Minister’s recent trip to the United States, said that he had made reassurances to US business leaders that he would be “pressing hard” for a deal that secures unfettered access to the European Single Market.
The statement sits starkly at odds with UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s stance on the issue. In a briefing last week following PMQs, a senior Labour source said that Corbyn wanted to reject integral aspects of the single market – including restrictions on when governments can bail out failing companies.
To further compound this discord, a Cardiff-based pro-Corbyn Labour councillor – Darren Williams – who was recently elected to Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC), went on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme this morning to expound what he sees as the opportunities posed by the proposed boundary changes.
Speaking to BBC’s Ross Hawkins, he said: “I do think the redrawing of boundaries does present an opportunity for the selection of some new candidates who may be more in tune with the views of ordinary party members.”
Wayne David, the MP for Caerphilly (and a non-Corbynite), also appeared on the programme, telling Hawkins that a purge of this kind would leave to “civil war”.
He said: “I’ll be extremely concerned if Jeremy Corbyn’s allies in Momentum took the opportunity of this gerrymandered boundary review to try and purge Labour MPs. If the national executive decides to reopen this matter, then I think it’s a recipe for civil war inside the party.”
In an interview with the programme, Jon Ashworth, the shadow minister without portfolio and the party’s spokesman on this issue, said Williams was not speaking for Corbyn on this matter.
Ashworth said: “Darren Williams is a new member of the national executive committee. I’m sure people in Jeremy’s office will be tearing their hair out at that contribution because that is not the position of Jeremy or his people.”
Welsh Conservative Assembly Member, Janet Finch-Saunders, said:
“While the UK Conservative Government are hard at work developing a strategy for life outside the EU, it seems the Labour party are abjectly incapable of finding common ground over their own vision for the future.
“Nowhere is this more evident than in the discord that exists between Carwyn Jones and his leader Jeremy Corbyn, both of whom fundamentally - and very publicly - disagree with a raft of issues, from Britain’s relationship with the EU to the renewal of trident.
“The ideological divide between UK Labour and Welsh Labour over such crucial issues is only serving to plunge Carwyn Jones’ party into a state of deep isolation, and one is left wondering what – if any - future it has if Corbyn is re-elected as leader.”