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Courtesy of the Times.
Labour MPs were called “cowards and facilitators” by a party colleague yesterday for backing Theresa May’s Brexit deal after her promise of extra cash for deprived areas. owning Street denied that the plan, revealed by The Times, amounted to “cash for votes”. However, it confirmed a “programme of national renewal post-Brexit” and the prime minister’s spokesman said that she had “a long-standing commitment” to tackling inequality between communities. This would be done, the spokesman said, by “rebuilding and reconnecting communities, driving prosperity and unleashing the potential of hard-working people. No community should feel that they are left behind.”
John Mann, the Labour MP for Bassetlaw, has held extensive talks with Mrs May and others in recent days and has made clear that he wants to see a substantial uplift. “Show us the money. A fund of sufficient size to transform our communities. Our areas voted Leave and it is time that we had the investment we need,” Mr Mann tweeted. Later he denied trading his vote for extra cash for his constituency. Colleagues who backed a second referendum expressed fury. David Lammy, MP for Tottenham, said history would be brutal to the “cowards and facilitators” who succumbed to Mrs May’s charm offensive. Wes Streeting, the MP for Illford North, said: “For Labour MPs to align themselves with the likes of Boris Johnson, Iain Duncan Smith and Priti Patel on Brexit would be a mistake that would rank alongside Ramsay MacDonald’s 1931 creation of a national government. It would never be forgiven and never be forgivable.”
Jeremy Corbyn was more measured, fuelling suspicion that he is privately content for Mrs May’s deal to pass with help from a small number of his MPs. He said MPs should always “demand appropriate resources for their constituencies”, though the best way to get them was to push for a Labour government. “Many, particularly from mining areas, have been disgracefully treated by this Tory government and indeed previous ones — ever since the miners’ strike in the 1980s,” he said. “Clearly, there has to be investment in those communities, but the Brexit plan doesn’t solve that any more than the government’s austerity programme is going to solve any of that.”
This morning Tom Watson, deputy Labour leader, described the offer as a bribe. “It would be wrong,” he told Breakfast on BBC One. “I don’t think any MP would take a bribe like that.” He emphasised that the prime minister needed to “come nearer” to Labour on a customs union, adding: “She’s not going to make progress unless she widens her base of support, which means she has to concede on some of the issues.”