Labour MPs clash with Jeremy Corbyn over Brexit as he vows to spend 'funds returned from Brussels'
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Loading... - Halle Benson
- 26 Feb 2021
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Jeremy Corbyn faced a clash with his own Labour MPs today as he vowed to fund public services with money "returned from Brussels" after Brexit.
The Labour leader will make the claim in a major speech on his party's Brexit policy tomorrow, in which he'll also vow to stay in an EU customs union.
But it comes hours after more than 80 Labour politicians warned leaving EU structures will leave Britain poorer, not richer.
One of those MPs, Chuka Umunna, hit back today: "Any ‘funds returned from Brussels’ will be utterly overwhelmed by the gigantic hit to the Exchequer of leaving the Single Market.
"Leaving the Single Market will torpedo the investment and anti-austerity plans in our manifesto."
Another MP who signed the warning, Chris Leslie, said of Mr Corbyn's claim: "Um, will you tell him or shall I? #BrexitAusterity."
Leave campaigner Boris Johnson famously - and falsely - boasted that Britain could take back control of £350million a week after Brexit.
In fact millions of that is a "rebate" which Britain never actually pays. The net figure is then lower still, and critics argue any benefit will be wiped out by higher trade tariffs.
Mr Corbyn will use his speech tomorrow to slam Boris Johnson's numbers that were "made up and paraded on the side of a bus".
However, without naming a figure, he is set to insist Britain will still benefit overall financially from leaving the EU.
"We will use funds returned from Brussels after Brexit to invest in our public services and the jobs of the future, not tax cuts for the richest," he will say.
It comes just hours after Remain-backing MPs, MEPs, regional politicians, union leaders and peers warned of the danger of Brexit austerity.
In a joint statement to The Observer last night, they called for Mr Corbyn to stay as a minimum in the European Economic Area.
This would grant full access to the single market but mean being a "rule-taker" from Brussels with little control over free movement.
The politicians, including former leader Lord Kinnock and arch-Europhile Lord Mandelson, wrote: "If we want to be able to fund our anti-austerity investment programme we can’t afford the multibillion pound hit to the public finances that leaving the single market would entail.
"We can only properly fund local services, schools, hospitals, social care and international development if our businesses thrive and our economy grows."
Leaving the single market would also raise the prospect of a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic, the letter says.
Mr Corbyn's speech will back staying in a customs union - a boost to Remainers that could inflict a fatal defeat on Theresa May's premiership.
Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer hinted Labour would join Tory rebels to vote for a customs union in the Commons, declaring: "Crunch time is coming for the Prime Minister."
But so far, Labour has not backed Remainers who want Britain to have full access to the EU's single market.
The Labour Campaign for the Single Market includes MPs Chuka Umunna, Heidi Alexander and Alison McGovern.
Another signatory, Harrow West MP Gareth Thomas, tweeted: "We must participate in the EU single market - for jobs, for influence; this is the most patriotic of the Brexit choices & it's why I signed this statement/letter."
But Shadow Attorney General Shami Chakrabarti told Sky News today: We’re not going to remain in the single market, we’re not going to be members of the European Union."
She added: "We want the closest possible relationship with our neighbours, whether it’s on matters of trade and we want access to that market."
On the other side, one of Labour's few Leave-backing MPs today warned Mr Corbyn against shifting to a 'soft' Brexit.
Frank Field, who chairs the Commons work and pensions committee, told the Sunday Telegraph: "This is not what people voted for and it is playing with fire. We will lose northern seats if this happens. They (voters) know when they are being messed around."
