Senior Labour figures call on Jeremy Corbyn to 'get off the fence' on Brexit
3 min read
Jeremy Corbyn has been urged by senior Labour figures to "get off the fence" on Brexit and back the UK's continued membership of the single market and customs union.
Some of the party's MPs and MEPs, as well as senior trade unionists, academics and environmentalists have put their names to a pamphlet challenging the arguments in favour of "lexit" - the left-wing campaign backing the UK's withdrawal from the EU.
They include former Shadow Health Secretary Heidi Alexander, fellow MPs Alison McGovern and Catherine West, Richard Corbett MEP and Lord Monks, who was general secretary of the TUC for 10 years.
The pamphlet, called "Busting the Lexit Myths", takes on claims that leaving the EU would end austerity, provide more money for the NHS, allow greater state aid for industry and give more protection for workers' rights.
Labour leader Mr Corbyn has the Government's plan to leave the single market and customs union after Brexit, but insisted his party would negotiate a new deal replicating many of the benefits of membership.
But Heidi Alexander, of the anti-Brexit Open Britain group, said: "We have to be honest. There is real frustration out there, amongst Labour members and supporters about the party’s position on Brexit. The sooner the leadership recognise this, the better it will be for the country.
"At no point in my lifetime has the opposition’s policy on an issue been more important. The fact that we continue to hedge our bets, when the argument is there to be won, is not doing anyone any favours.
"We need to remain in the customs union, meaning no tariffs on goods traded between the UK and the EU and we need to stay in the single market, so our service industries can continue to trade freely and easily.
"If we don’t get our act together we will see jobs go, the tax-take fall and public services cut further - we can’t let that happen.”
Alison McGovern who is co-chair of the Labour Campaign for the Single Market alongside Ms Alexander, said: "It is time for Labour to get off the fence. To end any perception that our party is on the same side as the purveyors of falsehoods like Boris Johnson and Michael Gove we need there to be a real difference between our party’s policy and that of Theresa May.
"Labour must be the party that stands up for the real interests of working people on Europe and which is not afraid to call out the liars of Brexit and Lexit for what they are.
"Words about a ‘jobs-first Brexit’ are in danger of looking like nothing more than clever rhetoric unless Labour actually backs the policies that will put jobs first by keeping us in the single market and customs union."
PoliticsHome Newsletters
PoliticsHome provides the most comprehensive coverage of UK politics anywhere on the web, offering high quality original reporting and analysis: Subscribe
