Labour ‘to remain in customs union and single market during Brexit transition’

&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpcnt">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpa">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<span class&equals;"wpa-about">Advertisements<&sol;span>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"u top&lowbar;amp">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<amp-ad width&equals;"300" height&equals;"265"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; type&equals;"pubmine"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-siteid&equals;"111265417"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-section&equals;"2">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div><p>Labour is committing itself to continued UK membership of the EU single market and customs union during a transition period following the official Brexit date of March 2019&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In a dramatic policy shift&comma; the party&&num;8217&semi;s shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer has announced that a Labour government would abide by &&num;8220&semi;the same basic terms&&num;8221&semi; of Britain&&num;8217&semi;s current EU membership during the transition&comma; which some observers expect to last as long as four or five years&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>And in an article for The Observer&comma; he made clear that the party is open to the possibility of negotiating new single market and customs union terms which the UK could sign up to on a permanent basis&period; At June&&num;8217&semi;s general election&comma; Labour promised to seek to &&num;8220&semi;retain the benefits&&num;8221&semi; of the single market and customs union as part of a &&num;8220&semi;jobs-first&&num;8221&semi; Brexit&comma; but leader Jeremy Corbyn has so far stopped short of committing to continued membership beyond the date of Brexit&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He is coming under pressure from some parts of the party to adopt a more pro-EU stance&comma; with a new group backed by former shadow health secretary Heidi Alexander and Wirral South MP Alison McGovern calling for a policy of &&num;8220&semi;unequivocal&&num;8221&semi; support for membership of the single market&comma; customs union and European Economic Area&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Sir Keir told The Observer that the Tory position&comma; set out by Chancellor Philip Hammond and International Trade Secretary Liam Fox&comma; of taking the UK outside the single market and customs union for the transition period would be &&num;8220&semi;unnecessary and a highly risky path to take&&num;8221&semi;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The shadow Brexit secretary wrote&colon; &&num;8220&semi;Labour would seek a transitional deal that maintains the same basic terms that we currently enjoy with the EU&period; That means we would seek to remain in a customs union with the EU and within the single market during this period&period; It means we would abide by the common rules of both&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>And he added&colon; &&num;8220&semi;We will always put jobs and the economy first&period; That means remaining in a form of customs union with the EU is a possible end destination for Labour&comma; but that must be subject to negotiations&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&&num;8220&semi;It also means that Labour is flexible as to whether the benefits of the single market are best retained by negotiating a new single market relationship or by working up from a bespoke trade deal&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Corbyn&&num;8217&semi;s office confirmed that the proposals set out by the shadow Brexit secretary had been agreed with the party leader and had the status of official policy&period; Sir Keir said that under Labour&comma; the transition period before the final shift to a new UK-EU relationship would be &&num;8220&semi;as short as possible&comma; but as long as is necessary&&num;8221&semi; and would be time-limited in order to prevent it becoming &&num;8220&semi;a kind of never-ending purgatory&&num;8221&semi;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A final deal would have to involve &&num;8220&semi;more effective management of migration&&num;8221&semi; while retaining the benefits of the customs union and single market as part of a &&num;8220&semi;strong and lasting new relationship&&num;8221&semi;&comma; he said&period; Critics of continued customs union membership argue that it would prevent the UK from striking new trade deals with non-EU countries&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But Sir Keir said it would ensure the continued flow of goods and services without the burden of additional red tape and tariffs during the transition&period; The &&num;8220&semi;fanciful and unachievable&&num;8221&semi; proposals on customs set out by David Davis in the Department for Exiting the EU&&num;8217&semi;s series of position papers on EU withdrawal showed that the Government was willing to take &&num;8220&semi;colossal risks&&num;8221&semi; with the economy and jobs&comma; said Sir Keir&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He warned that Prime Minister Theresa May&&num;8217&semi;s &&num;8220&semi;ideological obsession&&num;8221&semi; with taking Britain outside of all of the EU&&num;8217&semi;s structures in March 2019 mean that &&num;8220&semi;the options to deliver a good deal for Britain are diminishing fast&&num;8221&semi;&period; The Labour Campaign for the Single Market&comma; backed by Ms Alexander and Ms McGovern&comma; is hoping to table a motion at the party&&num;8217&semi;s annual conference in Brighton next month committing it to a policy of &&num;8220&semi;unequivocal&&num;8221&semi; membership of the market&comma; customs union and EEA&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;The Conservatives are putting the future of our country at risk&period; They are making a mess of Brexit and the Labour Party must stand up to them&comma;&&num;8221&semi; said the group&period; &&num;8220&semi;We need to act now to keep the UK in the single market and the customs union&period; This is the only way to protect jobs&comma; tackle austerity and defend our rights&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Welcoming Sir Keir&&num;8217&semi;s announcement&comma; TUC General Secretary Frances O&&num;8217&semi;Grady said&colon; &&num;8220&semi;Labour are clearly the grown-ups in the room&period; This is a sensible and reasonable approach to take&period; Sticking with our current deal during the transition will give working people certainty on their jobs and rights at work&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Keeping all options on the table is the best negotiating strategy&period; The Government were wrong to rule out staying in the single market &&num;8211&semi; it&&num;8217&semi;s time for them to reverse gear&period;&&num;8221&semi; And Labour MP Chuka Umunna&comma; a leading supporter of the Open Britain campaign against a hard Brexit&comma; said&colon; &&num;8220&semi;This is a most welcome announcement and a significant moment in the Brexit debate so far&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;A jobs-first Brexit is only possible through continued British membership of the single market and customs union&period; &&num;8220&semi;This will rightly pile the pressure on the Government to put membership of the single market and the customs union at the heart of their negotiating strategy&period; Anything else will be bad news for our economy&comma; jobs&comma; public services and social justice&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Responding to Sir Keir&&num;8217&semi;s announcement&comma; Labour peer and former minister Lord Adonis said on Twitter&colon; &&num;8220&semi;Chances of staying in the EU just rose to nearly 50&percnt;&period; Rejoice&comma; rejoice&excl;&&num;8221&semi; Liberal Democrat Brexit spokesman Tom Brake said&colon; &&num;8220&semi;This is all spin and no principle&period; &&num;8220&semi;When Labour&&num;8217&semi;s Chuka Umunna sought to win a parliamentary vote to stay in the single market&comma; Jeremy Corbyn sacked any frontbencher who dared vote with him&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Mr Corbyn supported the Conservative Brexit government and is Theresa May&&num;8217&semi;s best ally in her attempt to drag Britain out of the world&&num;8217&semi;s largest market&period; &&num;8220&semi;Judge a party by hard actions&comma; not empty words&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&&num;8220&semi;Jeremy Corbyn conned a generation at the last general election that he was somehow against Brexit&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&&num;8220&semi;He isn&&num;8217&semi;t&period; Keir Starmer can say he opposes hard Brexit&comma; but his leader doesn&&num;8217&semi;t back him&period; Labour is utterly divided&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div style&equals;"padding-bottom&colon;15px&semi;" class&equals;"wordads-tag" data-slot-type&equals;"belowpost">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div id&equals;"atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68e1f908bee4c">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<script type&equals;"text&sol;javascript">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;getAdSnippetCallback &equals; function &lpar;&rpar; &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;if &lpar; false &equals;&equals;&equals; &lpar; window&period;isWatlV1 &quest;&quest; false &rpar; &rpar; &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&sol;&sol; Use Aditude scripts&period;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;tudeMappings &equals; window&period;tudeMappings &vert;&vert; &lbrack;&rsqb;&semi;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;tudeMappings&period;push&lpar; 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