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SDLP leader Colum Eastwood appeals for Labour MPs to vote for Brexit deal

(left to right) Former Green Party leader Steven Agnew, SDLP leader Colm Eastwood and Sinn Féin deputy leader pictured in Dublin earlier this month following a Brexit briefing with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. Picture by Niall Carson/PA Wire
(left to right) Former Green Party leader Steven Agnew, SDLP leader Colm Eastwood and Sinn Féin deputy leader pictured in Dublin earlier this month following a Brexit briefing with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. Picture by Niall Carson/PA Wire (left to right) Former Green Party leader Steven Agnew, SDLP leader Colm Eastwood and Sinn Féin deputy leader pictured in Dublin earlier this month following a Brexit briefing with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. Picture by Niall Carson/PA Wire

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood has issued an appeal for members of the Labour Party to vote for Theresa May's Brexit withdrawal deal.

Mr Eastwood was speaking alongside members of Northern Ireland's pro-Remain parties - Sinn Féin, Alliance and the Greens - following a meeting with business leaders at Stormont.

The 27 EU member states and the UK government endorsed the draft withdrawal text at a special meeting in Brussels on Sunday and it is due to go before the House of Commons next month.

However, the Labour Party, the DUP and a significant number of Conservatives MPs have criticised the deal and are likely to vote against.

Mr Eastwood said: "We don't think there is a good Brexit but if we are going to have one, let's try and limit the damage to our communities and our businesses and our society here, that's what the backstop does, we need to bank that backstop, it is our ultimate insurance policy.

"I would appeal to people across the water who have a vote in two weeks' time, particularly people in the Labour Party who have a very keen interest in supporting our peace process and all the political progress we have had over the last 20 years, this is an opportunity to once again step in and protect the progress that you were involved in helping bring about.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has criticised the Brexit deal
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has criticised the Brexit deal Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has criticised the Brexit deal

"It is absolutely essential and we are all saying it, we are saying it as a collective political majority, we are saying it as a civic society from across all the different sectors, and our communities are saying it as well, we need your help, we need your protection, we need you to vote for this deal."

Read more:

  • Back my Brexit deal or risk division and uncertainty, Theresa May to warn MPs
  • 'No plan B' if UK rejects Brexit agreement Leo Varadkar warns

Sinn Féin vice president Michelle O'Neill insisted the parties spoke for the majority in Northern Ireland who voted to remain in the Brexit referendum.

"We collectively, as four pro-Remain parties, have been consistent in saying we speak for a cross-community majority of people here who voted to remain and clearly as we enter into the next number of weeks, this really is crunch time, this really is a critical time, it's a time for practical thinking," she said.

"What's on the table currently in the form of the Withdrawal Agreement is the least worst outcome, it is by no means a brilliant outcome, it by no means answers all the questions that businesses have here, but the reality is the economic facts speak for themselves.

"The business community very much come at this from that practical point of view, so I think our conversation this morning was useful and whilst we chart our way through the next number of weeks I think it is important that we are consistent, we remain firm on the facts, we remain firm, there is no good to come from Brexit but that we remain firm that the Withdrawal Agreement is much better than a crash out Brexit."

Representatives of the business community were also holding a meeting with the DUP today.