Labour unveils plans to seek limited changes to Brexit deal
Labour has broken its long silence on Brexit, laying out detailed plans to improve, not scrap, the deal Boris Johnson struck with the EU, in a move it concedes will enrage remain supporters.
On the sixth anniversary of the Brexit referendum, the shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, confirmed the party would seek only limited changes and would not seek to rejoin the single market which would bring the return of free trade and free movement of people.
“We are not going into the next election saying that we will enter the single market or the EU.
“You might not like it but Labour is determined to govern the entire country,” he said adding “there cannot be a rehash of arguments” made in remainer constituencies like his in London.
“The British people have made a decision and we have to honour it,” he told the UK in a Changing Europe’s annual conference.
His remarks came just hours after former Brexit negotiator Lord Frost declared “Brexit is working” and said those who said it was damaging the economy had an “axe to grind”.
Lammy pledged the party would seek to sign an agrifood agreement; to restore visa-free business travel for touring musicians and performers, and seek to improve haulage arrangements.
It would also seek to restore mutual recognition for professional qualifications such as accountants and architects, seal a deal on financial equivalence for the City of London and secure associate membership of the EU’s £80bn Horizon Europe science funding network, something the EU is delaying because of the row over the Northern Ireland protocol.
Without rejoining the single market or customs union, Labour’s approach amounts to a renegotiation of the trade deal which will come under regular review by both sides.
In an impassioned
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