Labour deputy Tom Watson clashes with Corbyn on 'buying British'
Labour's deputy leader has suggested people in the UK should "buy British" - potentially giving manufacturers a "Brexit bounce".
Saturday 28 January 2017 15:42, UK
Labour's deputy leader Tom Watson has put himself at odds with Jeremy Corbyn by proposing that the UK should "buy British" in response to Brexit and Donald Trump.
In a controversial speech for a senior Labour figure, he said Britain must keep an "open mind" about the new President's policies of "America First" and protectionism.
In an echo of Gordon Brown's "British jobs for British workers" call in 2007, Mr Watson suggested protectionist reforms could put workers first and give UK manufacturers a "Brexit bounce".
He claimed Brexit would free up the UK Government and the public sector to favour British goods and allow the UK to hit back against the new President's "buy American" pledge.
Mr Corbyn, on the other hand, has said in recent speeches and interviews that he supports freedom of movement and wants the UK to seek full tariff-free access to the single market after Brexit.
Mr Watson's speech came as Mr Corbyn battles to contain a mutiny among Labour frontbenchers against his order to party MPs to vote for the Government's Article 50 Bill next week.
The shadow Welsh secretary, Jo Stevens, became the second frontbencher to quit, declaring she was a "passionate European" and claiming Theresa May's "brutal exit" from the EU was a "terrible mistake".
And around 20 Labour MPs - in defiance of Mr Corbyn - have tabled a so-called "reasoned amendment" to the Article 50 Bill in a bid to prevent it gaining a second reading in the Commons on Wednesday.
Mr Watson, speaking at the Co-operative Party Economic Conference in London, suggested the UK's vote to leave the EU and the election of President Trump were changing attitudes to free trade.
"If Trump says buy American, our rational response is buy British," Mr Watson said.
"Yet to say 'buy British' these days risks sneering derision from much of Britain's commentariat and chattering classes, few of whom have been on a factory floor lately. When did you last hear Theresa May say it?
"It is an age old bugbear of many politicians that the UK's strict adherence to EU procurement rules is observed more keenly in London than in Rome and Paris.
"That era is about to end. The opportunities in public sector procurement to purchase British-made goods and services are significant."
He added: "The election of Donald Trump adds real uncertainty to global trading arrangements, against a backdrop of significantly increased economic nationalism.
"The basic assumptions that underpin current global policy, most importantly the assumption that free trade is good, and protectionism bad, are changing with Trump's election, and with Brexit.
"For the UK, it is imperative we keep an open mind about the Trump administration's economic policy and ambitions.
"Political and business leaders, and trade unions, need to ask themselves this: what if he does bring back the manufacturing jobs to America?
"What if the interests of the Rust Belt workers, who had their lives turned upside down by cheap imports from China, are prioritised over the ideological beliefs of Davos habitues?
"Conventional economic orthodoxy says that free trade benefits all countries, if not all workers in those countries. Yet is this really true?
"You can make a cogent case that the debt-fuelled growth of China has given Chinese corporations who receive forms of hidden state subsidies an unfair advantage in Western markets.
"Indeed Trump used the export of manufacturing jobs to China as a devastating political weapon.
"Now those international trade agreements Donald Trump is ripping up with gusto have also been the focus of opposition by organised labour, and for good reason: they also prohibit states from protecting workers.
"For the UK to ignore the early signs of a global reformation of international trading arrangements would be a mistake. For one, if there is to be a benefit to Brexit, many gains can be seen in domestic procurement."
Read more
:: Donald Trump tells Theresa May Brexit will be 'fantastic' for UK
:: Jo Stevens quits shadow cabinet over Corbyn's Brexit stance
:: Brexit rethink a 'good idea', says Article 50 author