Cynical Labour does yet another Brexit flip-flop
JEREMY Corbyn was last night accused of plotting to keep Britain in the EU ‘in all but name’ after Labour performed a staggering U-turn over Brexit.
Sir Keir Starmer yesterday claimed the party was now committed to staying in both the single market and the customs union for years after Brexit.
The party’s Brexit spokesman said Labour policy was to remain in both for the duration of a ‘transition period’ after Britain formally leaves the EU in March 2019 – which he said could be as long as four years. That would mean Britain having to continue hefty payments to Brussels, as well as accepting open borders.
Last night, Labour leader Mr Corbyn admitted he had no clue how long such a transition period might last.
And Lord Mandelson, a former trade secretary and European commissioner, tells today’s Financial Times that Labour had ‘done Parliament and the public a big favour’ with a policy which could save Britain from the self-inflicted economic harm of an abrupt departure from the single market and customs union. Mean- while, Sir Keir even admitted that Labour was now open to remaining in the single market permanently if the EU was willing to negotiate over free movement.
The about-turn came a few weeks after Mr Corbyn repeatedly pledged to support leaving the single market and sacked three shadow ministers for backing continued membership in a Commons vote.
Eurosceptics within the party last night warned that there would be a backlash if the leadership betrayed the millions of Brexit voters in Labour’s heartlands simply to pick up the votes of those who voted Remain.
Labour Leave, a group of Brexit supporting MPs and party members, said the leader needed to ‘honour the referendum’.
Brendan Chilton, its general secretary, said: ‘Single market membership is EU membership in all but name. This is mission creep for Brussels by people who have not accepted the result of the referendum. There will be millions of voters who came to Labour at the last election who feel let down.’
Tory ministers have accepted the need for a time-limited transition period to put in place a new UK- EU relationship after the country leaves on March 29, 2019. But they insist the UK must be outside the single market and customs Transition: Sir Keir Starmer union during this time so it can control migration and strike trade deals with non-EU countries. Writing in The Observer yesterday, Sir Keir said he wanted to be ‘absolutely clear’ about what Labour wanted, but he put no time frame on the transition. The period would be ‘as short as possible, but as long as is necessary’ and would be time-limited in order to prevent it becoming ‘a kind of never-ending purgatory’.
He wrote: ‘Labour would seek a transitional deal that maintains the same basic terms we currently enjoy. That means we would seek to remain in a customs union with the EU and within the single market during this period. We would abide by the common rules of both.’
Sir Keir suggested Labour could remain in the single market and customs union permanently if there was a ‘more effective management of migration’. He wrote: ‘We will always put jobs and the economy first. That means remaining in a form of customs union ... is a possible end destination for Labour, but that must be subject to negotiations.
‘It also means that Labour is flexible as to whether the benefits of the single market are best retained by negotiating a new single market relationship or by working up from a bespoke trade deal.’
Mr Corbyn yesterday endorsed the plan, while also refusing to say how long the transition period would be.
The Tories accused Labour of having ‘no idea’ of what it wanted as it claimed this was the party’s tenth Brexit plan in 14 months. A spokesman said: ‘Their leader can’t say they would end unlimited freedom of movement, they can’t decide whether we are leaving the single market and they have no vision for what Britain should look like outside the EU.’
But last night pro-EU Tory MPs claimed Mr Corbyn’s about-turn would put pressure on Theresa May to compromise on her plans for a clean break from Brussels.
Former business minister Anna Soubry told the Financial Times: ‘Everything has now shifted to the arguments we have been making for some considerable time.’
‘Millions of Labour voters will feel let down’
YOU have to stay very wide awake to keep up with Labour’s twists and turns over Brexit. Only two months ago, Jeremy Corbyn sacked three shadow ministers for voting to keep Britain in the single market and customs union.
Yet now remaining in both appears to be official party policy. Or maybe not...
Adding a new layer of confusion, Mr Corbyn’s Brexit spokesman Sir Keir Starmer wrote this weekend (in the name of ‘clarity’!) that Labour is now committed to keeping Britain in the single market and the customs union for at least a few years after our EU withdrawal – and perhaps indefinitely thereafter. So much for Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell’s declaration in June: ‘Let’s be clear. We are democrats. I think people will interpret membership of the single market as not respecting the referendum.’
So much, too, for Mr Corbyn’s assertion only last month: ‘The single market is a concept that requires membership of the EU.’ He also hinted he would rule out staying in the customs union, as this would mean remaining an EU member in all but name.
Indeed, like Theresa May, Labour believed Brexit meant Brexit, with the freedom to control our borders, make our own laws and strike trade deals with the wider world.
But that was July’s policy. Now it’s all change for August – until the next rethink.
As he switches his position from month to month, isn’t Mr Corbyn guilty of a blatantly unprincipled, vote-grubbing attempt to pose as all things to all men? No wonder Ukipper Leavers and Remoaner Lib Dems are united in their contempt.
Meanwhile in the real world, where livelihoods matter more than posturing, German and British business groups have joined in calling on EU negotiators to drop their preoccupation with side-issues.
Echoing everything this paper has argued, they say it’s high time to get down to the vital matter of thrashing out a trade deal, on which jobs throughout Europe depend.
Is anyone in Brussels listening? Or will the Eurocrats carry on jeopardising the future of millions by keeping trade talks on hold, while they pursue their petty obsession with a divorce bill?