Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Labour discovers that there is no easyBrexit

Despite the government reaching its long-awaited milestone of ’sufficient progress’ in the Brexit talks last week, certain key figures on both sides of the debate seem intent on muddying the waters as much as possible. Mr Steerpike reports on David Davis’s latest efforts on that front, while Labour MPs are trying to understand the implications of Keir Starmer’s latest utterances on their party’s Brexit position.

The Shadow Brexit Secretary appeared to walk into a trap laid by Andrew Marr yesterday, in which the presenter asked him reasonably innocent questions about Labour’s demand for a ‘single market variant’ and the need for a new treaty enshrining the full access to and benefits of the single market and customs union, before pointing out that this would leave Britain in the position of a ‘vassal state’ (a term coined by Starmer’s own colleague Barry Gardiner) in which Britain would have to carry on paying money into the EU and copying and pasting EU laws.

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