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Brexit: Labour amendment seeks 'full access' to EU market Brexit: Starmer defends 'divided' Labour's single market move
(about 17 hours later)
Labour says it will try to force the government to seek a new deal with the EU on the single market when MPs vote on the Brexit bill next week. Labour remains divided over whether to try and stay in the EU's single market, its Brexit spokesman has said.
Jeremy Corbyn's team has tabled amendments demanding Theresa May seeks "full access" to the single market. Sir Keir Starmer said the party's MPs had "different views" as he set out a series of compromise proposals on retaining access to the single market.
Anti-Brexit campaigners said his latest move did not go far enough. He also confirmed that Labour would not back a vote next week on keeping the UK in the single market through membership of the European Economic Area.
They want him to support European Economic Area membership, but Labour says it will abstain on this - making a government defeat much less likely. The UK is due to leave the EU in March next year, after the 2016 referendum.
The background to Labour's position
Much of the focus at the moment is on what sort of relations the UK will have with the European Union after Brexit.
The Conservative government has said that the UK will leave the EU single market and the EU customs union and will no longer be subject to the European Court of Justice, but wants to agree a deal providing as "frictionless" trade as possible.
The EU says that to have the benefits of the single market the UK must be subject to its rules and also agree to the free movement of people - the latter is something which both main UK parties have currently ruled out.
The government's EU Withdrawal Bill (which puts all EU law into UK law to prevent chaos on Brexit day) has been amended by the House of Lords to back a customs union being agreed with the EU, and also for the UK to join the European Economic Area, which would mean it being a member of the single market, like Norway.
MPs are due to vote on these and a series of other Lords amendments which are also at odds with the government's position. Many Labour MPs and peers had hoped Jeremy Corbyn would say the party would vote for staying in the European Economic Area.
But Labour has now said it will not support that amendment, instead setting out compromise plans for "full access" to the single market.
Labour's Brexit spokesman explains stance
Sir Keir Starmer told BBC Radio 4's Today programme Labour was not trying to have its "cake and eat it" by seeking to get the benefits of the single market without the responsibilities.
Sir Keir said there were different views in the party about European Economic Area membership - widely referred to as the Norway model - so they would not be able to defeat the government on it.
If it was an EEA member, the UK would get full access to the single market, have to pay into the EU budget and free movement laws would apply.If it was an EEA member, the UK would get full access to the single market, have to pay into the EU budget and free movement laws would apply.
Labour's amendment does not go as far as this - the party has ruled out free movement of people - but it does call for "no new impediments" to trade. Labour has said it will abstain in Tuesday's vote on the EEA and put forward its own amendment - which rules out the free movement of people but calls for "no new impediments" to trade.
Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer said Labour was seeking "our own more ambitious agreement". Sir Keir said Labour hoped to inflict a "catalogue" of defeats on the government - including on a new customs union, giving Parliament a decisive vote over the final deal and the Northern Irish border.
But the Liberal Democrats accused Labour of "peddling snake oil", saying the only way to have access to the single market was by being part of the EEA. But he said it was a "pretence" Labour would be able to win a vote on the EEA issue.
Membership of the EEA - the so-called Norway option - is on the agenda because it was backed by the House of Lords last month when it made changes to the government's EU Withdrawal Bill. "I am injecting some honesty about where we are in the Labour Party," he said. "There are very strong and different views across the Parliamentary Labour Party on that amendment.
Ministers will seek to undo the Lords' changes to the EU bill in a series of key votes on Tuesday. "I wish I could report we had unity on all amendments. We are not in that position... the only way we can win a vote is if Labour is united and we all vote together in the same way at the same time."
One of those will be on the EEA, and pro-EU campaigners have urged Labour to focus on this option to defeat the government. The key dates ahead on Brexit
Labour MP Chuka Umunna said: "The only amendment that has any prospect of success on the European Economic Area, on the internal market as some people call it, is the amendment that has been sent back to us from the House of Lords." The maths of Commons votes
Mr Corbyn has said EEA membership would make the UK a "rule-taker" with no say in Brussels. Theresa May's Conservative Party have 316 MPs and a deal which gives them the support in key votes of the 10 DUP MPs from Northern Ireland. At the moment it would take all opposition MPs - and eight Conservatives to rebel - for a defeat to happen.
The government has also ruled out the option, saying it would not give the UK "control of our borders or our laws". For every Labour MP who voted against EEA membership another Conservative rebel would be required.
The EU has already said the UK cannot have a bespoke arrangement that retains all the benefits of the single market without the obligations that membership entails. A big change in Labour policy?
Sir Keir called it a "significant" statement of policy, that Labour wanted a relationship with the EU after the transition period ends in 2020 based on "shared institutions and regulations" and "common standards".
The EU, he suggested, was prepared to negotiate such a relationship, which he said would be supported by business and workers as it would retain most of the existing benefits of the customs union and single market.
"If the UK indicates that it wants to negotiate something which keeps us economically close to the EU, there is a negotiation to be had and we should have that before giving up on that.
"The government has giving up fighting for the customs union and single market for fear of the negotiations."
Mr Corbyn has said EEA membership would make the UK a "rule-taker" with no say in Brussels but pro-EU campaigners says it is still the best deal on offer for the UK.
Reaction to Labour's stance
Labour MP Chuka Umunna said potential Tory rebels would not support Labour amendments for "tribal and political reasons" and would only give their backing to cross-party proposals.
"The only amendment that has any prospect of success on the European Economic Area, on the internal market as some people call it, is the amendment that has been sent back to us from the House of Lords."
The Liberal Democrats accused Labour of "peddling snake oil", saying the only way to have access to the single market was by being part of the EEA.
Brexit minister Suella Braverman said: "Labour have shattered their promise to respect the referendum result - this amendment means accepting free movement and continuing to follow EU rules with absolutely no say in them, which is the worst of all worlds."