Labour would leave single market, says Jeremy Corbyn

A Labour government would leave the single market because it is “dependent on membership of the EU” but seek a trade deal that mirrored the free trade benefits, Jeremy Corbyn has said.

The Labour leader’s explanation of his party’s Brexit policy was questioned by the former shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna, one of the party’s leading advocates of a soft Brexit, who pointed out that several countries including Norway were members of the single market without being full EU members.

Corbyn told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: “The single market is dependent on membership of the EU. What we have said all along is that we want a tariff free trade access to the European market and a partnership with Europe in the future.

“The two things are inextricably linked so the question then is the kind of trade relationship of the future and we have made it very clear we want a tariff free trade access with the European market.”

Corbyn also said the party had not decided on whether Labour’s policy should be to remain in the customs union, but claimed that was also firmly linked to being a member of the EU. “We haven’t jumped on either side of that fence but, again, the customs union is part of the European Union.”

In a Twitter thread after Corbyn appeared on the programme, Umunna said it was clear the UK could remain a full member of the single market and the customs union. “There are members of the single market who are not members of the EU; Turkey is basically part of the customs union but not in the EU,” he said.

Umunna said seeking a deal in which the UK took a similar stance to Norway and Iceland and remained in the single market would promote social justice and help end austerity. Members of the single market must also accept EU freedom of movement rules.

“At the very least, in the national interest, the UK should seek a long transition period as a member of the single market and customs union,” Umunna said.

“The overwhelming majority of Labour members think we should be fighting to stay in the single market – let’s do it. It’s vital we oppose the Tory job-destroying Brexit the government has embarked on in the strongest terms – we should give no quarter to it.”

Stewart Wood, the Labour peer and former adviser to Ed Miliband, also said he did not accept Corbyn’s description of the single market which he said “might come as a bit of a shock to Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, who are in the single market but not in the European Union.”

In the interview, Corbyn also hinted that Labour might be prepared to accept some version of free movement post-Brexit, as long as restrictions were imposed on companies recruiting directly from abroad.

“It would be a managed thing on the basis of the skills required,” he said of his party’s future immigration policy. “What there wouldn’t be is whole-scale importation of underpaid workers from central Europe in order to destroy conditions, particularly in the construction industries.”

Pressed on how his party would restrict immigration, Corbyn said: “You prevent agencies recruiting for jobs like that, you advertise for jobs in the locality first … It would be on the basis on the economic need and skills required. The need for nurses is huge … we have to be sensible about this.”

The Liberal Democrat Brexit spokesman Tom Brake said Corbyn’s decision not to commit Labour to remaining in the single market was “a betrayal of future generations who will suffer most from an extreme Brexit”.

Brake said Corbyn was “parroting the lie used by leading Brexiteers that membership of the single market is the same as staying in the EU”.