Leader of the Labour Party Sir Keir Starmer has announced that his party will vote in favour of the post-Brexit trade deal agreed by the UK and European Union.
MPs are to vote on the deal on Wednesday 30 December, after the agreement was announced earlier on Christmas Eve.
Announcing the decision to back the deal during a press conference on the evening of Christmas Eve, Sir Keir said that no-deal is ‘simply not an option’ due to the consequences it would have. He also said that abstaining was not a ‘credible’ option for a party showing ‘real leadership’.
Sir Keir said that ‘a better deal could have been negotiated’ and said ‘it is not the deal the government promised’.
He also claimed the government had been ‘grossly irresponsible’ for considering no-deal and that the agreement that had been reached is ‘thin’.
However, he said, “We must now go forward and we have to make a success of this.”
Sir Keir repeatedly said that Labour would inherit the deal in 2024 (the scheduled date for the next UK General Election), saying his party would want to ‘improve’ on it, without saying exactly how.
The reaching of the post-Brexit Trade Agreement between the UK and EU came earlier on Christmas, just days before the end of the Brexit transition period.
The full legal text of the deal is yet to be published, but with most Conservative MPs expected to back their government, the deal is very likely to pass on 30 December.
