Vauxhall MP Kate Hoey supports Brexit (Image: BBC)
Ms Hoey, who was for a time co-chair of Labour Leave, was responding to the Deputy Leader’s speech at a pro-EU think tank on Monday. She told host Mark Urban: “The values that Tom Watson talked about, all about the values of solidarity and the values of freedom and these were all part of the EU. I believe Labour should be an internationalist party and all those values are equally true of being an internationalist.”
Ms Hoey, who was Sports Minister under Tony Blair, added: “We’re tying ourselves to this small European Union.”
Mr Watson has made calls for Jeremy Corbyn to call a second referendum and has blamed the leader’s lack of clarity on Brexit for their poor showing at the European elections, where they lost 10 of their 20 seats.
Ms Hoey said she felt Mr Watson failed to see the difference “between the EU and Europe” before adding: “When I look back, 1983, we stood on a manifesto of leaving the common market, so the idea that somehow we’ve always been a pro-EU party is nonsense.”
Indeed, during the 1975 European Community membership referendum, Labour cabinet ministers such as Tony Benn, Barbara Castle, Michael Foot, Peter Shore and
