- Starmer said he ‘ideally’ wanted to end EU payments but said it was negotiable
- Shadow Brexit secretary wants equivalent access to single market after Brexit
- Intervention came as ex-Tory minister called for a tougher UK line on the talks
Labour could agree to keep paying the EU even after Brexit in return for trade, Sir Keir Starmer admitted today.
The shadow Brexit secretary claimed ploughing ever more cash into Brussels coffers could be the best thing for the UK economy.
Labour has demanded equivalent access to the EU single market as its marker for whether the Brexit deal is a success.
Labour could agree to keep paying the EU even after Brexit in return for trade, Sir Keir Starmer (pictured on Peston on Sunday) admitted today
Membership of the single market allows free trade across the EU but requires huge annual bills, thousands of EU laws and accepting mass migration.
Brexiteers insist it should be possible to agree a straightforward free trade deal based on mutually high standards without paying for access.
Asked if Labour would be prepared to continue paying into the EU budget indefinitely, Sir Keir told ITV’s Peston on Sunday programme: ‘We’ll have to see, subject to negotiations, obviously, ideally no or keep it low.
But in the end… it’s a very simple thing, if economically it’s better off to have an arrangement that works for our businesses and secures our economy then we’d do it.
Tory former minister David Jones (file image) today said Britain should toughen up its negotiating strategy
‘I mean anybody who says I would rather an arrangement that actually damages our business needs to think again about why they’re negotiating.’
Tory former minister David Jones said Britain should toughen up its negotiating strategy.
He told BBC Radio 4’s The World This Weekend: ‘If they are seeking a specific some of money, I can’t see for the life of me why it makes any difference at all to say ‘this is what we want’.
‘The best way of dealing with the logjam is to say look, until such time as you will talk sensibly about money, and also about our future relationship, which of course is a matter that is related to it, we will suspend the negotiations.
‘But, in the meantime, until such time as you talk to us we will assume you are not really serious and we will of course have to prepare for life outside the EU in which we will be trading with you on World Trade Organisation terms.’