A Labour government under Sir Keir Starmer would not take the UK back into the EU single market or customs unions, the shadow Chancellor has said on a visit to Swindon.
It is despite the party’s support for the Prime Minister’s Windsor Framework, which gives Northern Ireland such access.
The Labour leadership are promising to support Rishi Sunak’s new deal which aims to fix the issue of an effective trade border between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, allowing UK goods which won’t go to the Republic of Ireland to be handled with less regulation.
It was described by the Conservative PM as giving Northern Ireland unique access: both to the UK market and the EU single market.
Despite that proclaimed advantage, Rachel Reeves, the shadow Chancellor said while visiting Swindon last week: “We won’t be taking the UK back into the single market or customs union.
“We don’t want as a country to relive the trauma of the 2016 referendum, we’ve spoken about almost nothing else than Brexit for many years.”
But Ms Reeves said there were things a Labour government would do to make trade with Europe easier: “To help our farming and fishing industries, we could make a veterinary agreement with the EU to reduce red tape. New Zealand has one with the EU, Britain doesn’t.”
Ms Reeves said she'd want to reduce bureaucracy for artists touring Europe and also to have mutual recognition of professional qualifications to allow services such as legal, accountancy or architecture to be able to trade in Europe.
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