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Labor insiders have denied the party is divided over Sir Keir Starmer’s promise not to rejoin the EU’s single market as he sought to toughen up his alternative Brexit plan and call it quits amid accusations of uncertainty.
The Labor leader used a speech at the Center for Economic Reform to unveil his five-step plan to ‘make Brexit work’ – attacking Boris Johnson’s deal and trying to lay out his vision for a UK out of the EU, namely under a Labor government.
After two years of nervously toying around with his party’s Brexit policy, the former shadow secretary of state decided now – days after Labor Mayor Sadiq Khan said Britain should rejoin the single market – to lay out his toughest stance yet .
Sir Keir, once a supporter of a second referendum in which “nobody rules out Remain as an option”, categorically ruled out rejoining the EU should he become the next prime minister. He also said he would not return the country to the customs union, single market or free movement.
In the speech, Sir Keir laid out plans to “abolish most border controls” through a new veterinary agreement on farm products and the introduction of mutual recognition of professional qualifications.
He said he would “fix the Northern Ireland Protocol” – arguing that “the solutions are there, the desire is there” – and prioritize security cooperation and work “hand-in-hand” with business to get in to invest in British industry.
But his attempt to draw a line under his party’s Brexit columns was muted when Mayor of London Sadiq Khan doubled down on his view that the country should rejoin the single market. Before Sir Keir’s speech, Mr Khan reiterated in an interview with the BBC that he believed London businesses and residents would be better off if the UK were represented in the single market.
“I think it’s possible to be outside the EU but to be members of the single market. In fact, many of those who campaigned for leaving the EU have said the same thing,” Mayor Khan said, adding: “Keir’s job is to be Labor Party leader, my job is to be Mayor of London . This means that on many occasions I agree with the Labor Party, on some occasions I may disagree.”
Allies of both men insisted the disagreement was not a sign of a major split in the party, with Sir Keir’s team suggesting the Mayor of London could be expected to be speaking to “a different electorate” than the Labor Party leaders.
They downplayed suggestions about a broader issue, with a source saying so I: “The Labor Party is a broad church and there are different views, but I would say they are in the minority.”
Sources close to Mayor Khan insisted the two had always taken different positions on the issue and suggested that it would be wrong to interpret anything as days after the Mayor of London’s remarks as the timing of Sir Keir’s speech .
When asked how the two would work together under a future Labor government, they responded with such conflicting views on the country’s post-Brexit position that they were “hypotheses”.
Sources close to the Labor leader also pointed out that his party’s post-Brexit policy has been the same for some time. But they conceded that he never quite managed to get the message across the way he’s trying to do this time.
“We have long been clear about what we want to do, but I would suggest that there is clarity in terms of our message,” they said. “The political stuff isn’t brand new, the new element is that we’re bringing it to Johnson himself as a challenge to his deal. The step change is that it’s livelier.”
Some Labor MPs have already suggested that Sir Keir may struggle to gain support within his party.
One told I They thought the policy would be “contentious” for those representing the remaining constituencies and complained that there had been little consultation with backbenchers.
Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield shared a clip of Sir Keir’s speech at the Irish Embassy in London with the hashtag “not on my behalf”.
Speaking to reporters after the speech, Sir Keir was asked if he expected his backbenchers to follow the plan.
“Well look, we are from the EU. We must and we will make Brexit work and I have set that out today,” he said.
“And you don’t get ahead by looking at the past all the time. I don’t think there’s any argument that the reopening of departments in recent years is a recipe for our economy to grow.”
Asked how he could persuade his MPs, many of whom were pro-remain, to go along with his policy of staying outside tariffs and the single market, Sir Keir continued: “Whatever vote we have, we. re out and my plan is to look ahead and make Brexit work.
“The driving purpose or mission behind it is the growth of the economy, because the Achilles’ heel of the last 12 years is the fact that our economy hasn’t grown, that we’re stagnant as an economy… And that’s why we’re looking forward, not backward.”
Mike Buckley, the director of the Independent Commission on UK-EU Relations, praised the timing of the announcement.
“I think that’s what Labor has to say now,” he said.
“It’s Labor’s first priority to become the next government and I think left-wingers who are angry about that don’t understand electoral politics.”
Asked if the policy is a ‘Trojan horse’ scheme – to get into government before optimizing the UK’s economic ties with the EU, a Labor source said: ‘No, absolutely not. Our focus in building on what we have achieved, all of our proposed policies are aimed at shooting the public, we are a credible government waiting and decisions are being made in the public interest.”
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