Labour MPs demand Corbyn “gets off the fence” over Brexit and commits to staying in Single Market and customs union
Labour MPs are calling on leader Jeremy Corbyn and his frontbench team to “get off the fence” and take a position on Brexit after 19 months of ambiguity.
Backbenchers including former shadow minister Catherine West, the leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party Richard Corbett MEP, and Lord Monks, the former general secretary of the TUC, have put their name to a paper calling for the party to commit to staying in the Single Market and customs union, opposing the government’s view that Brexit necessarily means leaving both.
The paper, published jointly by Open Britain and the Labour Campaign for the Single Market, argue that Corbyn and team have allowed a number of myths to prevail including the idea that austerity is a consequence of EU membership; the claim that EU state aid rules would prevent Labour having an active industrial strategy and the idea that the EU would block renationalisation of the railways.
Open Britain supporter and Labour MP Heidi Alexander said: “We have to be honest. There is real frustration out there, amongst Labour members and supporters about the Party’s position on Brexit. The sooner the leadership recognise this, the better it will be for the country.
“At no point in my lifetime has the opposition’s policy on an issue been more important. The fact that we continue to hedge our bets, when the argument is there to be won, is not doing anyone any favours.”
Alexander, who co-chairs the Labour campaign for the Single Market, added: “We need to remain in the customs union, meaning no tariffs on goods traded between the UK and the EU and we need to stay in the Single Market, so our service industries can continue to trade freely and easily.
“If we don’t get our act together we will see jobs go, the tax-take fall and public services cut further – we can’t let that happen.”
Colleague Alison McGovern added: “It is time for Labour to get off the fence. To end any perception that our party is on the same side as the purveyors of falsehoods like Boris Johnson and Michael Gove we need there to be a real difference between our party’s policy and that of Theresa May.
“Labour must be the party that stands up for the real interests of working people on Europe and which is not afraid to call out the liars of Brexit and Lexit for what they are.
“Words about a ‘jobs-first Brexit’ are in danger of looking like nothing more than clever rhetoric unless Labour actually backs the policies that will put jobs first by keeping us in the Single Market and customs union.”