Gary Neville slams Labour for ‘sitting in stands’ by abstaining on coronavirus rules

Labour today came under fire for ‘sitting in the stands’ by abstaining on crucial coronavirus lockdown measures – as the party said it might not bother voting on any Brexit deal.

Former England and Manchester United star Gary Neville, now a businessman in the northern city, slammed Sir Keir Starmer for failing to take a position on the draconian tiers.

He insisted the Labour leader had a duty to be ‘bold’ and oppose the new rules that came into effect last week because there was not enough economic support alongside them.

The condemnation came as senior shadow ministers refused to rule out abstaining on any package Boris Johnson secures from the EU. 

Mr Johnson branded Sir Keir ‘General Indecision’ at PMQs last week after he ordered his MPs to sit out the crunch vote on new tiers in England. 

Sir Keir argued that the curbs were not strong enough and the Treasury should be providing more money for hard-hit areas.

But the neutral position meant the system was approved by the Commons, despite scores of Tories rebelling amid fury that 99 per cent of the country are under the toughest levels of restrictions.     

Mr Neville – previously a staunch Labour supporter – told Sky News’ Ridge On Sunday: ‘The restrictions being in place to protect health is fine, but they know that the economic support isn’t in place aligned with those restrictions, which means you’ve got to take a position and be bold and go against it, you cannot abstain.’

He said the people of Manchester were ‘frustrated with the lack of leadership’ in protecting the communities that are hardest hit.

‘So when you’re elected and you’re in that seat in Westminster, you take a position, you don’t abstain, you take part in the match, you’re the opposition.

‘The opposition – not sitting in the stand. They sat in the stand whilst the whole team had a clear run.

In a reference to the Tory rebellion, he added: ‘Even then they didn’t have a clear run because some of their own players got sent off.’

Shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds insisted the party ‘didn’t sit in the stands at all’. ‘The appropriate thing to do was not to block the regulations altogether,’ he said.  

Shadow ministers again refused to rule out abstaining on a Brexit deal this morning. 

The Labour leader gave his strongest signal yet last week that he will order MPs to support a package, saying almost anything is better than no deal.

Strategists fear that opposing or abstaining on new arrangements in a Commons vote could be a major setback to efforts to win back Leave-leaning ‘Red Wall’ seats in the north.   

However, there is deep disquiet at the idea of voting for an agreement among Sir Keir’s party – much of which is still deeply unhappy about Brexit.

There are claims that frontbenchers will resign rather than vote for an agreement, and many MPs will oppose it regardless of the whipping. 

Asked on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show if Labour would back any agreement on the future relationship, shadow Cabinet Office minister Rachel Reeves said: ‘Let’s see. At the moment the priority is to get a deal but we’ll have to look at the content of a deal but also any legislation that comes to Parliament.

‘We’re not going to give them a blank cheque but I think I have been very clear both today and on previous programmes with you, Andrew, that the most important thing is the Government gets a deal.’

Ms Reeves was repeatedly pressed about Labour’s position, to which she replied the Opposition wanted to see the content of any deal.