Smith went against party policy by calling for a referendum over the final Brexit deal

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The shadow Northern Ireland secretary, Owen Smith, was sacked by Jeremy Corbyn on Friday after breaking with Labour policy to call for a referendum on the final Brexit deal. Mr Smith was removed form his job as shadow Northern Ireland secretary after attacking Brexit and urging the Labour Party to campaign for a second EU referendum in a newspaper article. He is replaced by the veteran former minister Tony Lloyd, who only returned to the Commons last year after quitting as an MP in 2012 to become police and crime commissioner for Greater Manchester. A Labour source added that: “Owen was asked to stand down for repeatedly breaching shadow cabinet collective responsibility on Brexit by advocating single market membership.”

Smith tweeted that he had been “sacked by @jeremycorbyn for my long held views on the damage #Brexit will do to the Good Friday Agreement & the economy of the entire U.K.”

He added: “Those views are shared by Labour members & supporters and I will continue to speak up for them, and in the interest of our country.”

Smith stood against Corbyn in 2016 following a challenge against Corbyn’s leadership by Labour MPs. On appointing Lloyd, however, Corbyn said: “Tony is a highly experienced former government minister who is committed to ensuring that peace in Northern Ireland is maintained and helping to steer the devolution deal back on track.” Lloyd has previously served as a Foreign Office minister under Tony Blair and was chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party between 2006 and 2012 when he was MP for Stretford, later renamed Manchester Central. Smith, who challenged Corbyn for the party leadership in 2016, wrote an article in the Guardian, urging his party to reopen the question of whether Brexit was the right thing for Britain – and to offer the public a vote. And to ask, too, that the country has a vote on whether to accept the terms and true costs of that choice once they are clear.”

Smith will be replaced by Tony Lloyd, the shadow housing minister, who returned to parliament in 2017 after an unsuccessful attempt to become Labour’s mayoral candidate for Manchester. Smith was backed by former leadership contender and anti-Brexit campaigner Chuka Ummuna, who tweeted: “what has happened to our party?” in response to his sacking

In a statement on Smith’s replacement, Corbyn said that: “Tony is a highly experienced former Government Minister who is committed to ensuring that peace in Northern Ireland is maintained and helping to steer the devolution deal back on track.”

Commenting on his appointment, Tony Lloyd said: “As we leave the European Union, ensuring there is no hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic is of paramount importance and this will be my number one priority. "This is an incredibly important job, with a huge in-tray and I am looking forward to starting work."
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn sacks Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Owen Smith after he called for a second referendum on European Union membership. He is replaced by Rochdale MP Tony Lloyd.