Future may be clouded for British party rebels

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32975, 22 July 1972, Page 20

Future may be clouded for British party rebels

(From GARRY ARTHUR London correspondent of "The Press")

LONDON, July 21.

Surprisingly little account is being taken of the future of rebels on both sides of the House of Commons since the final vote in the European Communities Bill last week.

It was for some a real question of principle, and in varying degrees they did their best to put their principles before party considerations.

The Conservative Party, with the bill virtually home and dry, can afford to be magnanimous towards its 20 members who either voted with the Labour Party or abstained.

But some of the Labour pro-Marketeers must be worried about their political future now that the party has taken up such a firm position against the terms of entry. The most steadfast of the Labour rebels until the final vote was Mr Roy Jenkins, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer. He had voted against the principle of Britain’s joining the Common Market, and had resigned as the deputy leader of the Labour Party over the issue. Europe rewarded him with the Charlemagne Prize for

his services to the cause, but in the final devision, Mr Jenkins led most of his fellow pro-Marketeers in a vote against the bill. In this way, he has registered his support for the principle of joining Europe, but finally kept faith with the party and kept a place for himself within it. His vote will have made the task of those who want him expelled more difficult than ever.

Mr Harold Lever, another former Labour Minister, also voted against the bill, but he first rebuked fellow Labour members in the final debate for their "shameful” attitudes towards the peoples of Europe. Another Labour proMarketeer who voted against the Government in the final division was Mr William Rodgers, who had been a joint Minister of State at the Board of Trade in Mr Wilson’s Government. The abstainers Less willing to compromise were Mr George Thomson, the Labour Government’s Minister for Europe, and Mr Michael Stewart, Foreign Secretary in the last government They were among 13 Labour members who abstained. Mr Thomson had also resigned from the Shadow Cabinet, but he is now showing a strong desire to paper over the cracks in the party’s unity. In a speech last week, Mr Thomson called on the party to remove the Common Market from the centre of the Labour stage and give priority. instead to the many issues which unite the party. He may be afraid for his own chances if Labour becomes the Government again. It is strongly rumoured that the Conservatives plan to reward him for his support by making him one of the first British Commissioners in Brussels. Asked to retire One who has found himself in hot water because of his defiance of the party line is Mr Richard Taverne, who was a Minister of State in the Treasury in the Labour Government. He abstained from voting on the bill, and has been asked by his constituency to retire at the next election. He has appealed to the national executive committee. There is a strong move to oust Mr Jenkins and his followers — known as the “Jenkinsites”—from the party altogether, but it comes from the party’s Left and not from Mr Wilson. Always careful, Mr Wilson obviously values party unity above matters of ideology, and there is little doubt that his own chances of returning to No. 10 Downing Street will be strengthened if he can push such a divisive issue as the Common Market into the background in the months ahead. It is unlikely that he will let it dominate the party conference at Blackpool in October, and for that reason

the Labour rebels may feel reasonably safe from reprisals. Some of the Conservative anti-Marketeers have found themselves in trouble, too. Admittedly many of the 16 who voted with Labour were members who had nothing to lose because of imminent retirement, but some of the others are now on shaky ground. One is Mr Ronald Bell, who did not actually vote against the Government in the final division, but was among the four Conservative abstainers. A former spokesman on defence, he had voted against the second reading last February when the Government’s majority dropped to a mere eight. Many of Mr Bell’s constituents have been angry with him, and he has had to fight off a move to replace him as an M.P. and to prevent his being selected as a prospective candidate for a new constituency. The most notable of the Conservative rebels, of course, has been Mr Enoch Powell, who voted against the bill. But in spite of his intransigence, Mr Powell has been the subject of some speculation in the “Economist” about his chances of leading the Conservative Party some time in the future, along a path which might take the controversial member of Parliament to Downing Street itself.