Sophy Ridge on Sunday Interview with Richard Burgon Shadow Justice Secretary

ANY QUOTES USED MUST BE ATTRIBUTED TO SKY NEWS, SOPHY RIDGE ON SUNDAY

SOPHY RIDGE: With apparent paralysis in Parliament, Sky News will be in Leeds this evening hosting a debate between voters there to try and find out what the people want the politicians to do. The MP for Leeds, Shadow Justice Secretary, Richard Burgon, joins us now from Leeds.

RICHARD BURGON: Morning, Sophy.

SR: Morning. Your city is split pretty much 50/50 when it came to Brexit, as the MP for the area do you think people are more or less divided now?

RICHARD BURGON: Well the constituency that I represent was one of the eight constituencies in Leeds that voted heavily to leave. As you say, across the whole of Leeds it was basically 50/50 and people still hold strong opinions on this but what people want most of all though is a way out of this national crisis that the Conservatives have caused and that’s why I think Jeremy has been right in his recent speech in Wakefield and his speech earlier this week in Hastings, to talk about bringing people together who voted Leave and who voted Remain, because we believe that the real divide in our society isn’t between those who voted Leave and those who voted Remain but actually between the many and the privileged few at the top that have been doing very well, because whether you live in Huddersfield and voted Leave or in Hackney and voted Remain, you are still facing many of the same problems. Problems of low wages, stagnant wages, the housing crisis, austerity, the cuts to public services, so what we want is an end to the division in our country to bring people together around a common sense traditional British compromise that can get out of this impasse that the Prime Minister has caused.

SR: You are very clear there that you are pointing the finger of blame at the Conservative party but I just want to put to you a few things that the Labour MP David Lammy has just said on this show. He says that when it comes to Brexit, Jeremy Corbyn is hedging, that an election is very unlikely to happen and if Labour don’t have more of a solid position on Brexit, and he wants to see a second referendum of course, then the party could split. Is he right?

RICHARD BURGON: Well I don't think the party is going to split but David does hit upon an important point which is that Jeremy is the leader of the Labour party for the whole of the UK, he is somebody who is wanting to win the next general election to get a Labour government that can heal those divisions and get a government for the many and not the few and pass those policies but also Labour, not just in Leeds but across the whole country, represents both those communities that voted Leave and communities that voted Remain. That’s not a problem the Conservatives have, it’s not actually a problem that the Liberal Democrats have either. I think it’s a good problem to have and it makes us uniquely placed to bring people together. Most people don’t define themselves primarily as Remainers or Leavers when it comes to their view of politics or their view of life. Of course some do, and I respect their opinions, but we need to bring people together around the bread and butter issues but we are not going to be able to do that if we have a disastrous no-deal Brexit which is what the Prime Minister is threatening us with so our priority is to stop a disastrous no-deal Brexit. We believe that our proposal actually offers a way through that which will bring people together and command the support of the majority of the House of Commons too.

SR: Well in the spirit of bringing people together, Theresa May has been inviting members of opposition parties in to Downing Street to try and find a way through the current gridlock when it comes to Brexit. The party leaders went, Jeremy Corbyn didn’t go. This is what he said on May 17th: “You’ve got to work with people who often you don’t agree with, there has to be a process in which people talk to each other.” What happened to the man who believes in talking to all sides?

RICHARD BURGON: Well he and Labour do believe in talking and in negotiation, productive discussions. The reason that Jeremy said what he said in Parliament, he said he is happy to meet Theresa May to work out a way through this national crisis, he said let’s start off with the Prime Minister taking a disastrous no-deal off the table, that would harm communities economically in terms of jobs, both those who voted Leave and Remain, so he wouldn’t go to what would be in effect a PR stunt for the Prime Minister at that point. Other political parties – the Lib Dems, the Green MP and Plaid Cymru went to see the Prime Minister and were disappointed and they came out and found out it indeed was the case that Theresa May wasn’t being flexible, she wasn’t prepared to take no-deal off the table. The Prime Minister is trying to hold the country to ransom, threatening those who voted Leave unless they support her rotten deal will remain in the European Union, threatening those people who voted Remain that unless we support her disastrous deal then we’re going to crash out of the European Union with no deal. What we don’t want is to take part – and this is why Jeremy has already said what we didn’t want to do is take part in what could really be a PR stunt where the Prime Minister was cynically using other party’s goodwill in order to run down the clock further, further towards the disastrous no-deal Brexit she is threatening the country with. If she takes it off the table as she should do, as plenty of people in her Cabinet want her to, then I think we can bring the country together and get a way out of this national crisis.

SR: Okay, Richard Burgon, thank you very much. Unfortunately we are out of time there, thank you very much.