Labour has no intention of taking back control

AHEAD of the general election Labour was at pains to portray itself as a party committed to delivering the referendum result and said it would support a true Brexit. Now the mask has slipped. Deputy leader Tom Watson has suggested that really his party wants to keep us stuck inside the single market for ever.

This is an appalling act of dishonesty and a betrayal of the millions of Brexit voters who backed Labour in the belief that it genuinely supported leaving the EU. Staying in the single market would be a disaster for this country. The conditions of membership mean we would have to retain open borders, continue paying fees to Brussels and adhere to rulings from the European Court of Justice.

In June last year the people of Britain voted to take back control. Single market membership is simply not compatible with that goal. Before the referendum both Leave and Remain campaigners repeatedly made this clear. Since the triggering of Article 50 even Labour figures such as Jeremy Corbyn and shadow chancellor John McDonnell have said staying in the single market would be wrong.

Any effort to keep us inside this bloc following Brexit would be shamefully anti-democratic. Watson’s comments reveal his disdain for the millions of voters who backed Leave and these are sentiments shared by many of his Labour colleagues in Westminster.

Labour, packed as it is with pro-Remain metropolitan liberals, cannot be trusted to deliver Brexit. The only hope lies with Mrs May.