Sir Keir Starmer insists plan to cosy up to EU would not undo Brexit
RETREATING Sir Keir Starmer last night insisted his plan to cosy up to Brussels would not undo Brexit.
The Labour leader promised there was “no case for rejoining the EU, its single market or customs union”.
He set hares running this week after assuring a room of leftwing bosses Labour would “not diverge” from the bloc’s rules.
Tory MPs accused him of plotting to backslide on Brexit after previously advocating for a second referendum.
Sir Keir yesterday denied the claims but said: “That does not mean that a Labour government would lower standards on food or lower the rights that people have at work.”
Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves added: “We don’t want to rejoin the EU in name or any other way; we accept the result of the referendum.
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“That was seven years ago, more than seven years ago now, times have moved on.
"But we do want to have a better relationship with our nearest neighbours and trading partners.”
Their vows were cold comfort for Conservative critics who said he was once again “flip-flopping”.
Minister Mark Spencer said: “To keep obsessing - as the Labour Party do - over Brexit and looking back with pink-tinted spectacles and talking about following their rules, I think just takes us back in time.”
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Chancellor Jeremy Hunt added: “We are going to make a tremendous success of Brexit.
"We’ve already started to do so. And there’s lots more to come.
“We want to be good friends with our neighbours across the Channel.
"But I think any suggestion that you want to align our laws and regulations with the EU will worry a lot of the people who voted for Brexit.”
Sir Keir was also forced on to the defensive recently over a plan to sign up to any future EU migrant returns deal.
He later insisted this would not involve Britain taking a quota of the bloc’s asylum seekers after Suella Braverman warned it would turn the country into the continent’s “dumping ground”.