Meg Hillier: “no intention” of leaving Labour in wake of defections

Pic: meghillier.com

Labour MP Meg Hillier has reassured voters of her commitment to her party and reiterated her call for a second meaningful vote in the wake of Labour defections.

The Hackney South and Shoreditch MP used her weekly round-up video to address issues surrounding the eight Labour MPs who quit the party last week to form The Independent Group.

In the video published on Twitter, Hillier said that the defection: “Saddens me because I’ve worked with some of these people, and it’s always difficult to lose good friends to another cause.”

“But it’s also sad because it’s important that our party, as Tom Watson [the Labour deputy leader] has said, reflects broad opinion across the Left.”

Hillier recently told the Hackney Citizen  that she has “no intention” of leaving the Labour party in the wake of the defections. She then said how a potential vote on Brexit could happen next week: “We’ve got coming up very big votes on Brexit. We don’t know exactly what we’ll be voting for. My priority, as ever, is to make sure we don’t crash out with no deal and at the very least we extend Article 50.”

“I hope that next week I’ll finally get the chance to vote for us to have another vote, a second referendum, on whether we should stay or leave.”

This comes at an important junction in the Labour party, who last night confirmed the party’s new policy of supporting a second referendum, should they fail to get its own Brexit proposals through parliament on Wednesday.

Hillier, who has consistently supported UK membership of the EU, is Chair of the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Commons and has published nine reports on how well the UK is prepared for Brexit and has “concluded that even with a deal we are not ready to leave.”

“If we leave without a deal there will be huge uncertainty at the ports with any business or institution relying on imports seriously affected,” she said on her website.

“I recently challenged the PM on extending Article 50. She refused to directly answer my question. Businesses in Hackney South and Shoreditch and across the country need to know what is happening with Brexit.”

 

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