Jeremy Corbyn says he will be ‘lenient’ on Brexit rebels who DEFIED him to vote against Article 50
The Labour leader is also under pressure to sack Diane Abbott, the Shadow Home Secretary, after she was allowed to go home ill before the vote and abstained
Jeremy Corbyn says he will be 'lenient' on Brexit rebels who DEFIED him to vote against Article 50 last week.
The Labour leader hinted this afternoon that he could let off members of his shadow cabinet members who ignored his three-line whip.
Mr Corbyn is under pressure to sack Diane Abbott, the Shadow Home Secretary, after she suffered a migraine on Wednesday and was allowed to go home before the vote.
He told the BBC's World This Weekend that he was a "very lenient person", but that he would be making an announcement on changes to his frontbench team later this week.
Scores of MPs - including several front benchers - refused to vote in favour of starting Brexit talks last week.
And today Emily Thornberry refused to support her unwell colleague.
The Shadow Foreign Secretary failed to back Ms Abbott who was seen speaking in a Westminster Hall debate just hours before MPs went to the lobbies.
She said she hadn't spoken to her since she fell ill.
"I don't know the details of this, all I've told is that she was ill," she told the Andrew Marr Show this morning. "There's nothing else I can say."
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And Labour's Caroline Flint backed up calls for her to resign. She told ITV's Peston on Sunday: "It's about being part of a team. She holds one of the most important portfolios... if she can't support the leader then she should go."
Angry MPs are expected to raise the no-show of the Hackney MP at a private meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party tomorrow night. If the Shadow Home Secretary had been on the premises in her office, she could have been "nodded through", some MPs argued.
"Unless she was in bloody intensive care she should have been on the premises,” a senior backbencher told the "It is an outrage. It is completely incompatible to be sacking other people and keep her."
Other Labour politicians - including some suffering from cancer - were ordered back to the Commons to vote in favour of triggering Article 50 on Wednesday.
47 Labour MPs - including several frontbenchers - defied Mr Corbyn's orders and voted against starting Brexit talks. And a handful quit their positions before the vote itself.
Labour MP John Mann on Friday called for Ms Abbott to resign and apologise for missing the vote.
He said: "I think we all know what is going on here. She bottled the vote. It’s cowardice.
Mr Mann added: “Others have the integrity to resign from the shadow cabinet “If she had been rushed to hospital, then of course that’s perfectly rational and reasonable.
“But I think she should apologise to the party for her actions and she should resign”.
Ms Thornberry insisted today that Labour would not "frustrate Brexit" but that it was working to secure amendments to the Bill before the next crunch vote this coming Wednesday.
"It's not my job to work out what should happen [to Labour frontbenchers who voted against Article 50]," she said.
"We have a clear view... We do as we're told. We are fighting to get the best possible deal".
She went on: "The Labour party is a national party, we represent the nation. The nation is very divided on that, and it is very difficult."
Labour will decide later this week whether to back the Bill - regardless of whether it is able to push through amendments on securing the rights of EU citizens, workers rights, and access to the Single Market.
She also claimed that the party were talking in "back-channels" and having "private conversations" with Tory backbenchers over supporting some of the changes.
Maria Caulfield MP, member of the Exiting the European Union Select Committee, said:
"Labour are totally divided and confused over whether or not to back the Bill that delivers the country's decision to leave the EU.
"The Shadow Foreign Secretary says one thing, the Shadow Business Secretary says another - and the Shadow Home Secretary says nothing at all.
"Only the Conservatives, united behind Theresa May’s plan, can get the right deal for Britain."
The party has reportedly lost thousands of members since Mr Corbyn ordered his MPs to back Brexit.
More than 7,000 people gave up their membership in protest.
Activists said there was a “feeling of betrayal” among those who voted for him – who now thought he had given up his principles.
Labour's Harriet Harman hit out at the Labour leader today, saying that the Party needed to "get its act together" to oppose the Tories.
"I think we could be a more effective opposition," she told Sky.