What is Labour’s position on Brexit?

by Liam Furby
Posted on
7 years ago
2 min read

If you’re confused, you’re not alone. At their last conference Labour chose not to debate Brexit and their Scottish Spokesperson on the issue thinks that they shouldn’t have a position at all.

Here’s what we know.

Jeremy Corbyn has backed the Tory plan to drag Scotland out of the Single Market, putting 80,000 jobs at risk. 

The Labour leader even sacked frontbenchers for supporting Single Market membership. 

He also chose not to attend a cross-party summit on protecting jobs by staying in the Single Market.

And Corbyn continues to claim that you need to be in the EU to be in the Single Market. 

 

That’s not true. 

In fact, the Scottish Labour leader inadvertently made this clear too. 

Confusingly, Labour are also in favour of being IN the Single Market for a transitional period after the UK is OUT the EU. 

And when the SNP forced a vote on the Single Market, Corbyn and most of his MPs actually abstained. 

Corbyn’s claims on the Single Market haven’t gone down well with his own backbenchers. 

Carwyn Jones, Welsh Labour First Minister, has also spoken out against Jeremy Corbyn’s position on the Single Market.

As has the Labour Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan. 

In Scotland, Single Market membership had been supported by the former Labour leader.

Now the new leader of Scottish Labour, Richard Leonard, has appointed a Eurosceptic as his Brexit spokesperson – who thinks Labour shouldn’t have a clear position on Brexit at all. 

The SNP is clear: to protect jobs and living standards, we must stay in the Single Market.