Labour MP in U-turn on claim of bid for single market return

Labour has rejected claims it would seek to take Britain back into the EU single market and customs union after a shadow frontbencher expressed the hope it could return.

A party spokesman said Anna Mcmorrin, a shadow justice minister, had been spoken to by Sir Keir Starmer after it was reported that she suggested a Labour government may be able to renegotiate the UK’S deal with Brussels.

However, she retained her frontbench role after she issued a statement making clear that she backed the official party line that the UK had left the EU and that Labour was committed to making the existing deal work.

In footage of Ms Mcmorrin answering questions from supporters last week, she said: “We need to renegotiate the deal, certainly.” She added: “I hope eventually that we will get back into the single market and customs union, and who knows then?”

In her statement, Ms Mcmorrin said: “Labour policy on Brexit is clear.

“We have left the EU, Labour voted for the deal.

“Now it is the job of all of us to make it work.”

The spokesman said: “That is the Labour Party position.”

In the Commons, Boris Johnson taunted her about her remarks when she challenged him at Prime Minister’s Questions about comments by his new cost-of-living tsar saying that he “has to go”.

The prime minister replied: “I read the other day that she wants to go back into the single market and into the customs union.

“If that’s the real policy of the Labour Party – going back to the EU – why won’t the leader of the opposition admit it?”

If that’s the real policy of the Labour Party – going back to the EU – why won’t the leader of the opposition admit it?