Britain’s Labour party faced a mounting crisis on Saturday after Indian-origin MP Virendra Sharma refused to back the Brexit bill after another MP, Tulip Siddiq. quit her shadow Cabinet role. Mr. Sharma, from Ealing Southall, said his constituency had “overwhelmingly” voted to remain in the EU and he could not ignore their voices.
“I will not vote for a Brexit blank cheque...I cannot in good conscience vote to trigger Article 50 while it will threaten people’s jobs, wages and pensions,” he said.
“Access to the Single Market and a legal commitment to ensure the labour rights, health and safety protections, consumer rights, and environmental standards we currently enjoy are all key to my political beliefs,” Sharma said.
Ms. Siddiq, a niece of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, had resigned on Friday from her shadow Cabinet role to vote against the Brexit bill.
The niece of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina stepped away from the Labour frontbench following party leader Jeremy Corbyn’s decision to impose a whip on Labour MPs to vote in favour of triggering Article 50. “On the announcement of the three-line whip on the Article 50 vote, I feel I have no choice but to resign from my frontbench role as shadow minister for early years. I do not support the triggering of Article 50 and cannot reconcile myself to the frontbench position,” the 34-year-old MP for Hampstead and Kilburn in north-west London said in her resignation letter.
“I have always been clear — I do not represent Westminster in Hampstead and Kilburn, I represent Hampstead and Kilburn in Westminster. I feel that the most effective place for me to counter Theresa May’s hard Brexit is from the back benches,” she wrote.
Siddiq’s constituency had voted in favour of remaining within the EU in the June 2016 referendum.
