Rupa Huq says defying party whip on Article 50 'the right thing to do'

Rupa Huq, who represents the Ealing Central and Acton constituency, has voted against triggering Article 50 in the House of Commons this Wednesday (1 February).

The Bill passed with a large majority despite Dr Huq ignoring her party's three-line whip. 72% of votes in her constituency were cast for Remain at the time of the referendum. Unlike other shadow ministers, she has not announced her resignation. The two other MPs representing constituencies in Ealing, Stephen Pound and Virendra Sharma also voted against the Bill as well as neighbouring MPs Andy Slaughter and Ruth Cadbury.

The government's European Union Bill passed by 498 votes to 114 with the SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats opposing along with 47 Labour MPs and Tory ex-chancellor Ken Clarke.

Dr Huq told the Evening Standard before the vote that opposing the Bill was the right thing to do given that 70% of her constituents voted Remain. She said, “My issue is not with Jeremy, who I'm happy to serve under, it's with Theresa May's hardest of hard Brexits.”

She is currently a shadow minister home affairs. Normally it would be expected that an opposition minister would resign having voted against a three-line whip from their party. Two other shadow junior ministers - Dawn Butler and Tulip Siddiq - have announced their resignations. Although not part of the shadow cabinet it is understood that her position gives Dr Huq a 20% uplift in salary. The party's chief whip Nick Brown is to produce a report into the Brexit rebellion and Deputy Leader John McDonnell told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that while the parliamentary convention will apply for shadow cabinet ministers it will be left to the recommendation of the chief whip what to do about junior ministers.

Keir Starmer, Labour's Brexit Minister, has said that no punishment has been determined for rebel Labour MPs and promised that any disputes would be resolved “collegiately”. It is understood that several members of the shadow frontbench argued for a free vote on the issue.

Theresa May has said that she intends to trigger Article 50 before the end of March despite the recent Supreme Court decision to endorse a previous ruling that Parliament must be consulted.

After Article 50 is triggered, the UK will remain a member for a period of two years before breaking away entirely from the EU. After this there will be a period of transition in which EU regulations will continue to apply but will be gradually replaced in some cases by domestic legislation.

We have requested further comment from Dr Huq.

February 2, 2017