Labour wants new customs union treaty after Brexit - Starmer

Jeremy Corbyn is to confirm a shift in the Labour Party's position on remaining in the customs union after Brexit, Sir Keir Starmer has indicated.

The shadow Brexit secretary said Labour's front bench was "unanimous" in its backing for striking a new deal with the EU after Brexit.

The UK would leave the customs union but then negotiate a treaty that will "do the work of the customs union".

Mr Corbyn is due to make a speech on Monday setting out Labour's position.

Labour has previously said it wants the UK to retain the "benefits" of the customs union and the single market without saying how that would be achieved.

Sir Keir said being in a customs union was the "the only way realistically to get tariff free access," which was "really important for our manufacturing base" and the only way to avoid the return of a "hard border" in Northern Ireland.

'Bold new agreements'

Asked on BBC One's Andrew Marr Show how the UK could strike its own trade deals if it is in a customs union, Mr Starmer said: "How that is done will have to be negotiated."

But he said Britain was more likely to strike new deals if it works "jointly with the EU", adding: "We all want to do bold new trade agreements but we would be better off doing that with the EU."

"Labour say they want to join a customs union, what does that mean?" he asked.

"Will we take rules in certain sectors and not in others? Will we have freedom in certain sectors and not in others?"

He said the cabinet had agreed a joint position on how the UK's relationship with the EU will look after Brexit at an eight-hour meeting at Chequers, the prime minister's country residence, on Thursday.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who was not at the meeting, said the UK would align its regulations with the EU in certain industrial sectors, such as the car industry, but "diverge" in other areas.

'Crunch time'

Mr Fox did attend the Chequers awayday but refused to confirm this is what had been agreed. He said Prime Minister Theresa May would be setting out the government's position in a speech on Friday.

He urged Remain-supporting Tory MPs, who are threatening to derail the prime minister's plan to leave the customs union, to have an "an open mind" and listen to what she had to say, which would "deal with a lot of the reservations that they have".

The Labour leadership is under pressure from some of their own MPs to join forces with Conservative rebels and the Lib Dems to back an amendment to the Trade Bill, currently making its way through Parliament, to stay in a customs union.

Mr Fox said a vote on the bill, which had been due to take place next week, had been delayed because "we want to persuade our colleagues of the merits of our argument before we take the bill forward".

Sir Keir said the Labour leadership had not yet decided to back the rebel Tory amendments but claimed they were similar to ones that had been tabled by the Labour front bench.

He said Mrs May did not have a majority in Parliament for staying out of a customs union and "crunch time" was rapidly approaching for her - although he denied Labour was engaged in a cynical attempt to remove her from office and force a general election.

Single market call

In his speech on Monday, Mr Corbyn will say the EU "is not the root of all our problems and leaving it will not solve all our problems".

"The truth is more down to earth and it's in our hands. Brexit is what we make of it together, the priorities and choices we make in the negotiations."

More than 80 senior figures in the Labour Party have, meanwhile, urged Mr Corbyn to commit to remaining in the EU single market after Brexit.

The group of MPs, MEPs, council leaders and trade unionists say investment plans cannot be funded if the UK retracts its membership.

In a statement seen by the Observer, figures including Lord Mandelson, pro-European backbencher Chuka Umunna, former leader Lord Kinnock, and trade union leaders said the party as a minimum "must clearly and unambiguously" set out to remain part of the European economic area.

They added that "if we want to build a modern, low-carbon economy that protects workers and tackles tax avoidance, we will only achieve it through collaboration and frictionless trade with our nearest neighbours."

This is "the only way" of keeping existing benefits, they said.

Although they regard Mr Corbyn's expected commitment on Monday as a "step forward", they said this falls "way short" of where Labour should be on Brexit.

(BBC)