JEREMY Corbyn is making one of his rare trips to Scotland this morning as he seeks to escape dissent in his party over plans to back the Tories on Brexit.
The beleaguered Labour leader will be joined by Scottish boss Kezia Dugdale, at an event on Scotland’s constitution in Glasgow.
It comes as he faces a rebellion in his party over his stance on Article 50, the formal process for leaving the EU. If, as expected, the Supreme Court uphold the decision of the High Court to allow MPs a vote on article 50, Corbyn has indicated he would make his backbenchers side with the Government.
The SNP and Liberal Democrats have indicated they will vote against triggering Brexit. Four shadow cabinet ministers, including close Corbyn loyalists, and several more junior frontbenchers, are reported to have said they may not back their leader in the vote.
One shadow cabinet minister from a Remain-backing constituency said: “I’m concerned that if we wave article 50 through, my constituents will go crazy.” Another said: “When the pain hits, as it will, and when people lose their jobs, you need to be on the right side of that. I don’t think we should vote to trigger article 50.”
SNP deputy leader Angus Robertson, previously accused Corbyn of not doing his job over Brexit. He said it was extraordinary that after May’s speech on the EU earlier this week, the “official British opposition was absent without leave, significant numbers of their MPs not even in the chamber, total incoherence from the Labour frontbench”.
In his speech tomorrow Corbyn is expected to resurrect Ed Miliband’s plan to replace the House of Lords with a senate for the nation and regions and attack the SNP over local government cuts. “The SNP Government simply passes on Tory austerity and is increasingly failing to govern effectively or fairly,” he will say.
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