Labour must push for full access to the single market says Carwyn

THE time has come for Labour to push for full membership of the European Economic Area (EEA) when the country leaves the EU so Britain will have an arrangement which is good for business and jobs, according for First Minister Carwyn Jones.

This would mean the UK would join Norway and a small number of other countries which are not part of the EU but which enjoy full participation in the single market.

Support is growing for the UK to go into the EEA while a final deal is negotiated. Former Conservative leader William Hague has suggested this as a two-year staging post and Aberavon Labour MP Stephen Kinnock argues Tory MPs could back this move as part of a “coalition of common sense”.

When asked if the time had come for Labour to back full EEA membership, Mr Jones said: “Yes I do... Why jump off a cliff when you can walk over a bridge?”

The Welsh Labour leader said there was “no going back” on leaving the EU but “that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it in a way that’s good for business, good for jobs”.

He expects Brexit will see “a lot more cross-party working” than is normally the case.

Mr Jones met with Labour MPs from Wales this week as the dust settles on an election in which the Conservatives were initially predicted to take about half of Wales 40 seats but ultimately saw their tally of MPs fall to just eight when Labour took three constituencies.

Bridgend AM Mr Jones said Labour had “braced” itself to lose seats but that its campaign “resonated across Wales”.

Next time, he said, Labour needed to win the election.

Acknowledging the role played by UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in the campaign, he said: “Everybody recognises the contribution that Jeremy made to the success of the campaign. That much is true...

“We need to work out now, of course, how to win and how to win more seats in the parts of England where we didn’t do so well.”

He argues the party needs to look at areas such as the West Midlands to see how it can deliver a better result.

In Wales, Labour took Vale of Clwyd, Gower and Cardiff North from the Conservatives.

Mr Jones pointed to Theresa May’s speech in Wrexham as a moment which made a “real difference” to the outcome of the election.

The launch of the Welsh Conservative manifesto was completely overshadowed by the alleged U-turn on social care changes in England which were dubbed a “dementia tax”.

Describing this as an episode in which “much of the sheen came off,” he said: “She was no longer strong and stable.”

Ipsos Mori’s analysis of the election