Stephen urges parliamentary colleagues to oppose Prime Minister's Withdrawal Agreement Bill

Stephen spoke this afternoon in the Second Reading of the Government's European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill.

He urged fellow MPs to oppose the Bill, pointing out two major inaccuracies in its portrayal by the Prime Minister.

Speaking after his Commons intervention, Stephen said: 'Statements made by Boris Johnson directly contradict the Agreement he has negotiated. The Prime Minister has said that there will be no new Rules of Origin checks and no border checks across the Irish Sea. In both cases, Government documents show there will be such checks. The deal will put the continued existence of the UK in its current form at risk, and will damage the UK economy. MPs who support it will have a lot of explaining to do to their constituents in the years ahead, as the impacts unfold'.

Stephen thanks residents of East Ham on re-election

Stephen has retained the seat of East Ham, polling 41,703 votes.

Speaking at the count, Stephen thanked the people of East Ham for their “steadfast support” since he was first elected in 1994. “It has been a real privilege to represent the community in Parliament for all that time,” he said.

Stephen admitted it would be “ a long haul" but the party needed to fight back and rebuild support. "Some of us have been through this process before in the Labour party after very disappointing election results," he said. Despite some good policies, Stephen said Labour didn't have "a credible overall package" in the end. "I think that was the problem - people felt we were spraying money right, left and centre, and we can't do that if we are going to persuade people that we should be trusted with government," he said.

"We have to re-learn lessons that were learned. "I was elected in 1994, Tony Blair became leader, changes were made and we're going to have to learn the same lessons again … about how to convince people we can be trusted with the government of Britain."

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