Jeremy Corbyn accused of ‘ratting’ on Brexit over EU customs union U-turn
Shadow Brexit Sec Keir Starmer has confirmed the party's leadership 'unanimously' approved the stunning U-turn – but Brexit-backing firebrand Frank Field has warned the policy would 'rat on the people’s decision to leave'
JEREMY CORBYN was today accused of “ratting” on Brexit after Labour frontbenchers said he was ready to tie Britain to Brussels indefinitely.
In key Brexit speech today, the Labour leader is expected to confirm he wants Britain to join an EU customs union after 2020 - and will surrender our right to strike free trade deals with the rest of the world.
Tory Brexit Secretary David Davis said the move would shackle Britain to Brussels in a flagrant betrayal of Labour’s Election manifesto a year ago.
He accused Mr Corbyn of acting like a "snake oil" salesman.
And Brexit-backing Labour MP Frank Field warned that staying in an EU customs union after the end of a transition phase in 2020 would “rat on the people’s decision to leave”.
Jeremy Corbyn is also expected to refuse calls for a big crackdown on unlimited EU immigration as part of any Brexit deal in his speech today.
He will instead call for an agreement that allows Britain access to the single market but freedom to nationalise swathes of industry.
Labour’s Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer yesterday confirmed the party had “unanimously” approved signing up to a customs union – piling pressure on Theresa May.
Sir Keir also signalled that Labour would side with Tory rebels demanding Theresa May do the same – boasting: “Crunch time is coming for the Prime Minister.”
Joining a customs union would allow goods to be moved around the EU bloc without any checks or tariffs - but it would prevent Britain from striking its own trade deals with the rest of the world.
Sir Keir echoed Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry last week in saying it made no sense to try and strike trade deals on our own.
He told the BBC: “We all want to do bold new trade agreements, but we’d be better off doing that with the EU.” He added that Labour’s Brexit position had been “evolving” and Jeremy Corbyn would confirm the policy today.
A spokesman for Jeremy Corbyn today refused to comment.
In extracts from the speech released last night, the Labour leader said he wants a “new and strong relationship” with the EU single market that includes “tariff free access”. But he said Labour wants an exemption from the EU’s state aid and privatisation rules.
The Labour leader added that leaving the EU “does not inevitably spell doom for our country”.
Challenged that it was an exact replica of the Tories “cake and eat it” approach, a Labour source said: “Cake is there to be eaten.”
The Tories last night accused Labour of taking 97 separate positions on Brexit since the EU Referendum
But writing in the Daily Telegraph last night, Brexit Secretary David Davis said: “When Jeremy Corbyn stands up today to announce his latest policy on Brexit he seems certain to break the commitments he made to voters at the last Election.”
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More than 80 Labour grandees and MPs yesterday told Mr Corbyn that leaving the single market would ruin his efforts to end austerity.
Labour’s Brexit-backing MPs have repeatedly warned that shackling Britain to the EU will lose the party’s huge numbers of voters across the North of England.
Leave campaigner Kate Hoey yesterday said: “I hope Jeremy will remember that in the last election our manifesto commitments on the EU helped ensure that many ex-Labour voters who had gone to UKIP came back to us on the understanding that he was committed to leaving the EU and not leaving in name only, which is what any form of customs union and the EU would mean.”
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