Supporters and members of Another Europe Is Possible in the Labour Party are backing this motion to the 2023 Labour Party Conference in Liverpool. It has been passed by Edinburgh Central Constituency Labour Party (CLP) and will now be put forward to the conference itself in less than two weeks time.
Commenting on the motion, Will Tillotson, Edinburgh Central CLP delegate, said:
“While the Tories in government desperately lean further into the politics of bigotry, workers, and the poor, vulnerable, young and scapegoated continue to suffer from the massive economic and social consequences of Brexit. It remains for the next Labour government to be ambitious in confronting xenophobia and repairing economic damage, including by restoring free movement, ending the hostile environment and rejoining the Single Market. At Labour conference, delegates should choose a progressive left-wing, internationalist alternative to Tory Brexit.”
Read the motion below.
If you are a member of the Labour Party contact your CLP Delegates now, and push them to support this motion in the ‘compositing’ process so that it can be discussed and voted on by the conference floor.
Mitigate the impacts of Brexit on immigrants and workers
Conference notes
- the vast damage that hard Brexit is causing by reinforcing Tory attacks on services, living standards and rights.
- that polling shows a growing majority want to rejoin the EU, sitting now at 50-31 according to Omnisis.
- a March 2023 Omnisis poll which found 72% of the public and 66% of Leave voters support “mutual free movement” between the UK and Europe.
Conference believes
- Labour has a responsibility to criticise the Tories’ ultra-hard Brexit and offer an antiracist, internationalist alternative.
- withdrawal from the single market has brought economic ruin for workers.
- excluded from social and medical support, migrants have been left vulnerable to employers. Restrictions on migrant workers’ rights have diminished the power of all workers to unionise and fight exploitation and many EU citizens are falling through gaps in the Settled Status scheme.
- Labour must reject “good migrant/bad migrant” narratives and oppose all legislation that undermines migrants’ rights.
- even if rejoining the EU is further on the political horizon, a Labour government must take action to reverse Brexit damage in the short term.
Conference resolves that Labour will
- rejoin the Single Market and Customs Union.
- re-enter Europe’s free movement area and end the hostile environment with policies including extending voting rights to all UK residents, replacing Settled Status with an automatic Right to Stay, ending indefinite detention, abolishing “no recourse to public funds” and rejecting any immigration system based on incomes, utility to businesses or number caps.
- aim to rejoin the EU.