May’s Brexit ‘at odds’ with business Labour’s Starmer: Government strategy threatens ‘just in time’ manufacturing
LABOUR’S shadow Brexit secretary has accused Prime Minister Theresa May of pursuing a Brexit strategy “at odds with business”, as he warned employers were scared they would have to cut jobs or close plants.
Speaking to the Birmingham Post at Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool, Sir Keir Starmer said manufacturers including carmakers had told him they needed a Brexit deal that would allow them to continue importing parts from EU countries.
He said: “Businesses are saying to me loud and clear, we don’t want disruption, we don’t want to move away from the model we’re operating.
“On the contrary, they say, what can do you do protect this model? Because we don’t want to lose jobs, we don’t want to lose manufacturing, we don’t want to move our factories.”
Sir Keir highlighted the threat to the ‘just in time’ method used by many major manufacturers, which depends on the ability to import parts across the EU without restrictions.
Many of the parts come from suppliers in EU countries and the system would grind to a halt if there were long checks at borders.
He said he had met with “the best part of 1,000 businesses” over the past two years, particularly manufacturers.
He said: “Whether it’s the trains in the North East, some of the carmakers, the potteries in Stoke, the aerospace industry elsewhere, I’ve had long and confidential discussions both with the workforce and with the management.
“There’s a huge emphasis on the importance of being in a Customs Union with the EU so that the ‘just in time’ manufacturing model can be preserved.
“But while Labour backs a customs union with the EU after Brexit, preventing border checks, the Government was pursuing a complex alternative scheme
“That is where the Prime Minister’s negotiating strategy is at odds with business.”
Sir Keir was greeted by cheers when from he told the conference that one option in any referendum could be to remain in the EU.
Asked whether Labour could include a commitment to a second referendum in a future general election manifesto, he told the Post it was too soon to say.
“From time immemorial the main parties have never said in advance of drawing up their manifesto what’s going to be in their manifesto, because none of us know the circumstances we are going to find ourselves in.”
Referring to the current planned Brexit date of March 29 next year, he said: “We don’t know when the election’s going to be. If there’s an election before March then there may be certain things that go in the manifesto that can’t go in after March.
“But that’s not a feature of this particular meeting.
“I think you’ll find over time parties very, very rarely say in advance of a general election precisely what’s going to go in their manifesto.”