Meanwhile Labour doesn’t even know what its policy is!
Labour’s Europe policy was thrown into confusion yesterday after two frontbenchers challenged their leader’s position on the single market.
Jeremy Corbyn said at the weekend that brexit would ‘absolutely’ mean the UK would leave the single market.
and John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, said failing to leave the single market would be akin to ignoring the result of the referendum.
but yesterday sir Keir starmer, the party’s brexit spokesman, attacked Theresa May for pre-emptively ruling out continued membership of the single market – even though that is what his own leader has done.
and barry Gardiner, their international trade spokesman, suggested the inconclusive election result meant the UK could stay in as part of a soft brexit.
The differing emphases illustrate the tussle at the top of the Labour party between pro-Eu figures in the shadow cabinet and the leadership, which is far more Eurosceptic.
on sunday, when asked whether he was clear that brexit would mean an end to single market membership, Mr Corbyn told bbC1’s andrew Marr show: ‘absolutely.’
speaking later on ITV’s Peston on sunday, Mr McDonnell said of single market membership: ‘I can’t see it even being on the table in the negotiations, I don’t think it’s feasible.’ but
‘Rejected by the electorate’
yesterday, sir Keir told BBC radio 4’s The World at one that Labour would like the possibility of continued membership of the single market to be one of the starting points of negotiations to leave the Eu.
He said he accepted this would be difficult to achieve while also imposing restrictions on the free movement of people, but attacked Theresa May for pre-emptively ruling membership out. He said he would like to see a ‘different tone and approach’ to talks with the Eu.
‘What we’ve criticised the government for is simply sweeping options off the table before they even started the negotiations,’ he said.
‘What David Davis said is that it’s not that the Government doesn’t want membership of the single market, it’s that they’ve been told you can’t have that with freedom of movement. It seems to me that would be a good place to start discussions, start negotiations, rather than simply taking it off the table.’
sir Keir said that while full freedom of movement would go, it could potentially be maintained for fami- lies or those with jobs. He said: ‘We could think differently. but we’ve got to get around the table and have that discussion. What the Government’s said is, “it’s simply too hard, sweep all the options off the table”. In so doing it has created this extreme form of brexit, which has now been rejected by the electorate.’
Mr Gardiner put forward a similar position on BBC radio 4’s Today programme earlier in the day. ‘What we’ve said is that we need those benefits, and whether they’re achieved through reformed membership of the single market and the customs union, or through a bespoke trading arrangement, is actually secondary to achieving the benefits,’ he said.
‘It’s an open question as to what we can get. What we criticised [Theresa May] for doing is taking membership of the single market off the table right from the beginning.
‘It’s quite ironic that she was the one who said you had to take certain things off the table, and she said we should not take off the table a no- deal outcome, which seemed crazy to most people.’