Yahoo News Labour's Brexit position in doubt as senior figures leave door open to single market
Just days after leader Jeremy Corbyn vowed any Labour government would take Britain out of the single market after Brexit, the party’s stance on the issue is once again in doubt after senior figures seemingly backed away from supporting a hard Brexit.
According to The Times, shadow chancellor John McDonnell and shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer told Labour supporters on Wednesday that all options should remain on the table to ensure Britain can retain the benefits of the single market and customs union.
Speaking at a Labour in the City event, Starmer said that “it is vital that we retain the benefits of the single market and the customs union. How we achieve that is secondary to the outcome and should be part of the negotiations.”
He continued: “We need to be flexible in our approach and not sweep options off the table.”
The comments would appear to amount to a dramatic reversal from Corbyn’s comments on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show last weekend, where he said that single market membership was “inextricably linked” to membership of the EU itself.
“The single market is dependent on membership of the EU”, he said, although a number of countries are members of the market despite not being members of the bloc.
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Corbyn’s comments were the clearest statement of Labour’s Brexit position yet. The party’s election manifesto said it wanted to keep the “benefits of the single market” but did not elaborate.
Some high-profile MPs were unhappy with their leader’s stance. Chuka Umunna said in a series of tweets that membership of the single market “promotes social justice” and would help “end austerity”. Umunna tabled an amendment to the Queen’s Speech last month calling on the government to keep Britain in the single market which was signed by 49 Labour MPs, despite Corbyn imposing a strict three-line whip against it.
While the party’s position on the single market is in fresh doubt, its stance on the customs union is not much clearer.
Corbyn was forced to rebuke shadow international trade secretary Barry Gardiner earlier this week after he said staying in the customs union would be “a disaster” for Britain.
The Conservative government plans to leave both the single market and the customs union, but is considering a transitional period to avoid a so-called “cliff-edge” Brexit.
As Corbyn attempts to toe the line between his apparently long-held ideological desire to withdraw from the single market and the belief of many of his own MPs that to do so would be disastrous for Britain, a recent poll showed that more than eight in ten Labour members think the UK should remain in Europe’s key trading blocs.
