Labour will seek to amend an Article 50 bill in parliament if Theresa May fails to put forward a plan for Brexit, Sir Keir Starmer admits
The Shadow Brexit Secretary said that a "late, vague plan will not do" and he would oppose a hard Brexit, amid fears the Opposition could seek to obstruct the process
LABOUR will seek to amend any bill on triggering Article 50 in Parliament if Theresa May fails to produce a "meaningful" Brexit plan, Sir Keir Starmer has said.
The Shadow Brexit Secretary told that a "late, vague plan will not do" amid fears the Opposition could seek to obstruct Brexit.
During a speech at Bloomberg this afternoon, Sir Keir said the Government had not been handed a "blank cheque" to carry out Brexit as it wished, and that the party would fight plans for any strategy that "tears us apart from our EU partners".
"I have put the government on notice that if no meaningful plan emerges, Labour will seek to amend any Article 50 Bill brought forward early next year," he said.
"Anyone who thinks that the government has been handed a blank cheque is very much mistaken.";
Sir Keir hinted that if the Government proceeded with a so-called "hard-Brexit" plan, Labour would seek to block it.
He attacked the Government for bringing an appeal on how to trigger Article 50 to the Supreme Court, which he said had wasted time that should have been spent planning for Brexit. But he insisted that any plans to amend an Article 50 bill would not throw plans off course to trigger Brexit by the end of March.
"Of course amendments can be considered in Parliament without delaying the timetable," he said.
Finally admitting that Labour needed to do more to listen to concerns about immigration, Sir Keir said that it must come up with a proper plan.
"Our new relationship with the EU will have to be one which is based on fair migration rules and the reasonable management of migration," he added.
He refused to put a number on how many people should come into the UK, but added: "the direction of travel needs to be downwards," he said.
He also set out five tests for Brexit plans that Labour will fight to see put in place, after the Government agreed to put forward some of its plans.
The Shadow Brexit Secretary said that it was important to end uncertainty over the Single Market, Customs Union and transitional arrangements, providing enough detail for select committees to scrutinise, and that a plan must help to build a "national consensus on Brexit".
He also said the Government's plan should enable officials to assess the economic impact of Brexit, and allow the regions of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to have their say too.