LABOUR could become the midwives of Brexit as MPs meet to vote on Boris Johnson’s deal.
The Tory leader will need support from across the floor today if his deal is to pass.
The SNP, LibDems and the DUP – key Tory allies – have all ruled out backing the agreement, with Scotland Secretary Alister Jack stating that any Tory who votes against the Government must have the whip removed.
Yesterday afternoon, Nicola Sturgeon said she feared Labour support would hand Johnson victory and claimed Scots voters would “never forgive” the party for doing so.
Speaking in Westminster, the First Minister said: “I have an increasing suspicion that there will be enough Labour votes to help the deal go through, which will mean Labour is never forgiven in Scotland for being the facilitator of Brexit.”
Insisting the deal would be “atrocious” for Scotland, she continued: “If this deal passes I suspect history will look back on the day it passes as the day the Westminster political union died.”
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Lesley Laird, Labour’s shadow Scotland secretary, told The National that Sturgeon’s claim was “nonsense,” adding: “Labour opposed Theresa May’s bad deal and Boris Johnson’s is worse.
“This is a sell-out deal that threatens workers’ rights, food standards and the environment and would open the door to Donald Trump getting his hands on our NHS.
“The only way to get Brexit sorted is to let the people decide by giving them the final say.”
But Labour backbencher Ronnie Campbell said he is “likely” to vote for the deal along with as many as 11 colleagues, telling the BBC he is “under a lot of pressure from the head lads of Labour” to abstain.
The Blythe Valley MP said: “People just want a deal done.”
In an interview with Robert Peston last night, Boris Johnson insisted the package he’s put together is a “vast, vast, vast step forward” from that presented by his predecessor Theresa May.
On the Northern Ireland border problem, he said: “It busts out of [the] backstop, the previous problem with the deal, the previous deal that kept us locked in the customs union and the single market.
“And what it also does, which is good, is it creates a period, a transition period from end of October, end of this month, there’s a period of standstill giving certainty to business and at the end of that it is perfectly correct that we will move to the new arrangements.”
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Pressed on whether he could rally MPs to back his deal, Johnson said: “There is a is a very clear case for all of us to get this done.”
He added: “I sense from my own constituents in Uxbridge and across the country, people want us to deliver now and parliamentarians – whether they’re Labour, LibDems, Plaid, Scottish nationalists – we all want to – or DUP – we all want to move on.”
Asked whether today’s vote was the biggest event of his career, the PM said: “I wouldn’t deny that, I think it’s a very big moment for our country.
“But also its a big moment for our democracy and parliamentarians because I do think we have a choice, which is we have to consider how long we can delay and seem to frustrate what was a pretty clear democratic expression of the will of the people and I think that it would be a great and a fine thing if we could get it done and come together.”
The DUP’s Sammy Wilson yesterday urged Tories to reject the blueprint and “take a stand” with his party, which rejects the proposed Irish border arrangements.
Some have supported the Northern Irish party’s position in the past.
Following an afternoon meeting with Johnson in Downing Street, Tory Brexiteer Bill Cash, a member of the European Research Group, said that despite “very constructive discussions” over “massive” issues, “nothing is concluded yet”.
He continued: “But we’re drilling down into really good, important matters of national importance and trying to get the answer that everyone will be able to work with.”
Scottish Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing warned this country’s fishing and fish processing sector would be “devastated” under Johnson’s proposal, which could prompt Scots vessels to register and land catches in Northern Ireland for transport into the Republic of Ireland to avoid EU customs duties.
He said: “Johnson’s Brexit deal is a terrible one for Scotland, which will see us – alone of all UK nations – not to get what we voted for and not to have any say at all.
“It would directly threaten thousands of jobs and could make the sector among the hardest hit by Brexit.”
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