In yesterdays EU referendum vote, much attention has been given to the rebels. Here we name not only the rebels, but also the abstainers. The referendum proposal was defeated by 483 to 111. The DUP, Independent Unionist and Green supported the Referendum as did 101 rebels comprising 81 Tories (42.4% of the 191 “non-payroll” vote), 19 Labour (most of whom are regular rebels on European issues), and one Lib Dem. Plaid and the SDLP voted against, whilst the SNP abstained.
Counting abstainers is more complicated because some MPs are absent with the whips’ permission. There were in fact 31 Tory MPs who did not vote (excluding a deputy speaker) plus two who voted both ways (an explicit “absention”), but it is clear that at least 15 were deliberate abstainers which means that those defying the whip were more than half the Tory non-payroll vote. There were 41 Labour MPs who did not vote (excluding two deputy speakers), most of whom do appear to have done so without the agreement of the whips.
The names are as follows:
LABOUR
Supporting the Referendum: Ronnie Campbell (Blyth Valley), Rosie Cooper (Lancashire West), Jeremy Corbyn (Islington North), Jon Cruddas (Dagenham & Rainham), John Cryer (Leyton & Wanstead), Ian Davidson (Glasgow South West), Natascha Engel (Derbyshire North East), Frank Field (Birkenhead), Roger Godsiff (Birmingham Hall Green), Kate Hoey (Vauxhall), Kelvin Hopkins (Luton North), Steve McCabe (Birmingham Selly Oak), John McDonnell (Hayes & Harlington), Austin Mitchell (Great Grimsby), Dennis Skinner (Bolsover), Andrew Smith (Oxford East), Graham Stringer (Blackley & Broughton), Gisela Stuart (Birmingham Edgbaston), Mike Wood (Batley & Spen).
Absent or abstaining: Douglas Alexander (Paisley and Renfrewshire South), Graham Allen (Nottingham North), Ian Austin (Dudley North), Hugh Bayley (York Central), Anne Begg (Aberdeen South), Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West), Gordon Brown (Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath), Russell Brown (Dumfries and Galloway), Katy Clark (North Ayrshire and Arran), Rosie Cooper (West Lancashire), Angela Eagle (Wallasey), Frank Field (Birkenhead), Barry Gardiner (Brent North), Fabian Hamilton (Leeds North East), Tom Harris (Glasgow South), John Healey (Wentworth and Dearne), George Howarth (Knowsley), Siân James (Swansea East), Alan Johnson (Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle), Graham Jones (Hyndburn), Helen Jones (Warrington North), Gerald Kaufman (Manchester, Gorton), Alan Keen (Feltham and Heston), Alan Meale (Mansfield), Austin Mitchell (Great Grimsby), Graeme Morrice (Livingston), Grahame Morris (Easington), Meg Munn (Sheffield, Heeley), Fiona O’Donnell (East Lothian), Bridget Phillipson (Houghton and Sunderland South), Linda Riordan (Halifax), John Robertson (Glasgow North West), Frank Roy (Motherwell and Wishaw), Marsha Singh (Bradford West), Andrew Smith (Oxford East), John Spellar (Warley), Jack Straw (Blackburn), Gerry Sutcliffe (Bradford South), Keith Vaz (Leicester East), Joan Walley (Stoke-on-Trent North), Alan Whitehead (Southampton, Test)
CONSERVATIVE
Supporting the Referendum: Stuart Andrew (Pudsey), Steven Baker (Wycombe), John Baron (Basildon & Billericay), Andrew Bingham (High Peak), Brian Binley (Northampton South), Bob Blackman (Harrow East), Graham Brady (Altrincham & Sale West), Andrew Bridgen (Leicestershire North West), Steve Brine (Winchester), Fiona Bruce (Congleton), Dan Byles (Warwickshire North), Douglas Carswell (Clacton), Bill Cash (Stone), Christopher Chope (Christchurch), James Clappison (Hertsmere), Tracey Crouch (Chatham & Aylesford), David Davies (Monmouth), Philip Davies (Shipley), David Davis (Haltemprice & Howden), Nick de Bois (Enfield North), Caroline Dinenage (Gosport), Nadine Dorries (Bedfordshire Mid), Richard Drax (Dorset South), Mark Field (Cities of London & Westminster), Lorraine Fullbrook (South Ribble), Zac Goldsmith (Richmond Park), James Gray (Wiltshire North), Chris Heaton-Harris (Daventry), Gordon Henderson (Sittingbourne & Sheppey), George Hollingbery (Meon Valley), Adam Holloway (Gravesham), Stewart Jackson (Peterborough), Bernard Jenkin (Harwich & Essex North), Marcus Jones (Nuneaton), Chris Kelly (Dudley South), Andrea Leadsom (Northamptonshire South), Jeremy Lefroy (Stafford), Edward Leigh (Gainsborough), Julian Lewis (New Forest East), Karen Lumley (Redditch), Jason McCartney (Colne Valley), Karl McCartney (Lincoln), Stephen McPartland (Stevenage), Anne Main (St Albans), Patrick Mercer (Newark), Nigel Mills (Amber Valley), Anne-Marie Morris (Newton Abbot), James Morris (Halesowen & Rowley Regis), Stephen Mosley (Chester, City of), Sheryll Murray (Cornwall South East), Caroline Nokes (Romsey & Southampton North), David Nuttall (Bury North), Matthew Offord (Hendon), Neil Parish (Tiverton & Honiton), Priti Patel (Witham), Andrew Percy (Brigg & Goole), Mark Pritchard (Wrekin, The), Mark Reckless (Rochester & Strood), John Redwood (Wokingham), Jacob Rees-Mogg (Somerset North East), Simon Reevell (Dewsbury), Laurence Robertson (Tewkesbury), Andrew Rosindell (Romford), Richard Shepherd (Aldridge-Brownhills), Henry Smith (Crawley), John Stevenson (Carlisle), Bob Stewart (Beckenham), Gary Streeter (Devon South West), Julian Sturdy (York Outer), Sir Peter Tapsell (Louth & Horncastle), Justin Tomlinson (Swindon North), Andrew Turner (Isle of Wight), Martin Vickers (Cleethorpes), Charles Walker (Broxbourne), Robin Walker (Worcester), Heather Wheeler (Derbyshire South), Craig Whittaker (Calder Valley), John Whittingdale (Maldon), Dr Sarah Wollaston (Totnes) plus tellers Peter Bone (Wellingborough) and Philip Hollobone (Kettering)
Explicit Abstainers (voting for and against): Iain Stewart (Milton Keynes South) and Mike Weatherley (Hove)
Absent or abstaining: Adam Afriyie (Windsor), David Amess (Southend West), Paul Beresford (Mole Valley), Peter Bottomley (Worthing West), David Davies (Monmouth), George Eustice (Camborne and Redruth), Roger Gale (North Thanet), Mark Garnier (Wyre Forest), William Hague (Richmond, Yorks), Alan Haselhurst (Saffron Walden), Kwasi Kwarteng (Spelthorne), Phillip Lee (Bracknell), Julian Lewis (New Forest East), Louise Mensch (Corby), Andrew Murrison (South West Wiltshire), Sarah Newton (Truro and Falmouth), Stephen O’Brien (Eddisbury), Mike Penning (Hemel Hempstead), Daniel Poulter (Central Suffolk and North Ipswich), Dominic Raab (Esher and Walton), Malcolm Rifkind (Kensington), Henry Smith (Crawley), Julian Smith (Skipton and Ripon), Mark Spencer (Sherwood), John Stanley (Tonbridge and Malling), Graham Stuart (Beverley and Holderness), Peter Tapsell (Louth and Horncastle), Andrew Turner (Isle of Wight), Rob Wilson (Reading East), Jeremy Wright (Kenilworth and Southam), George Young (North West Hampshire)
LIBERAL DEMOCRATS
Supporting the Referendum: Adrian Sanders (Torbay)
Absent or abstaining: Danny Alexander (Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey), Gordon Birtwistle (Burnley), Menzies Campbell (North East Fife), Don Foster (Bath), Mike Hancock (Portsmouth South), Michael Moore (Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk), Greg Mulholland (Leeds North West), John Pugh (Southport), Robert Smith (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine)
The referendum, as a device, degrades democracy and hands enormous power to media owners and well-heeled pressure groups.
I’m always puzzled by the way that sections of the Labour Party – more prominently sections on the left of the Labour Party – are prepared to use them tactically when they effectively disenfranchise the very people that the Labour Party was founded to represent.
It can’t simply be a matter of “I’m anti-EU – any device that will help me express that will do” – if parts of the Labour Left continue to imagine that crude populist versions of direct democracy such as this serve any progressive purpose, I despair of them.