Exclusive: EU officials have privately rejected Labour's Brexit policy as unworkable 'cakeism'

REUTERS/Olivier Hoslet/Pool

Britain's opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn arrives for a meeting with European Union's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier at the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, July 13, 2017.

• EXCLUSIVE: Senior EU figures have privately rubbished Labour's Brexit central Brexit policy.
• Jeremy Corbyn has committed to retaining all of the benefits of the single market while negotiating a deal on the free movement of people.
• However, a senior official in the European Commission told Business Insider that Labour's plan to leave the single market but retain all its benefits is "cakeism" and would be rejected in negotiations.
• "If you want it in a nutshell, the single market isn't divisible," the source said.
• A group of Labour MPs have urged Jeremy Corbyn to back an amendment to the Brexit bill which seeks to keep Britain in the EEA, where member countries adhere to free movement.
• Allies of Labour's Brexit spokesperson, Sir Keir Starmer, reject suggestions that the free movement of people is non-negotiable.

LONDON - Senior European Union figures have rubbished the Labour Party's Brexit policy of maintaining all the benefits of the single market, while restricting the free movement of people, as unworkable "cakeism" that would not be accepted by the EU.

Labour is committed to negotiating a new single market deal with greater flexibility on free movement than that enjoyed by countries such as Norway.

However senior EU officials have rejected this, telling Business Insider that the four freedoms associated with single market membership are indivisible

Last week, the Labour leadership tabled an amendment to the Withdrawal Bill which detailed its policy of a new single market relationship with the EU, based on "full access" and "no new impediments to trade."

"We are confident we can build a new relationship with the EU. We want the UK to have a better deal than the Norway model," the Labour leader to the House of Commons last week.

The party has rejected an amendment to the Brexit bill, set to be voted on by MPs today, which would seek to keep Britain in the EEA.

Labour's Brexit team believes its willingness to accept all EU regulations and standards would persuade Brussels to be flexible on issues such as free movement.

This was reiterated by an ally of the Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer, who told BI: "In France and Germany, they are talking about the free movement of people. Standards are much more important to the EU than immigration."

A source close to the Labour frontbench reiterated this position on Tuesday, telling BI: "We accept there is a negotiation to be had but we also accept that this is an issue where there if fluidity within the member states."

However, a senior European Commission official involved in Brexit negotiations told BI that while Labour's policy has a better "starting point" than the UK government's, its goals amount to cherry-picking and would be rejected.

Leon Neal/Getty Images

Sir Keir Starmer.

"The starting point is not a bad one in that amendment. It's one of alignment rather than divergence. It also proposes some form of customs union. That's much better. That's all good," the Commission official said.

"But the problem is, the single market is a legal order, so you can't pick and choose from it. It's like every other proposal we've had. We've been here before."

They added: "Labour's proposal frontloads the idea of possible divergence and frontloads the idea of not wholly accepting the four freedoms, specifically the free movement of people. It looks like exceptionalism."

"If you want it in a nutshell, the single market isn't divisible."

The source said that although Labour's Brexit policy hadn't been the subject of formal discussions in the commission, senior EU figures had been privately talking about it with one another.

"The only positions which are discussed in a formal sense are the ones of the UK government and the European Union expressed through [Michel] Barnier. But obviously, people here have been talking about this," they said.

"I was talking to Barnier's team about this and they said 'well, it's better but it's still cake-ism. Starting from the same point allows some room for tweaking, but these things have to comply."

A source close to the European Parliament's Brexit taskforce was blunter in their assessment of Labour's single market policy, telling BI: "It's crystal clear what the EU's position has been. Labour are as bad as the Tories, selling a unicorn to paste over their internal decisions."

"Labour are as bad as the Tories, selling a unicorn to paste over their internal decisions"

A Labour MEP in Brussels offered their own criticism of the policy. "It reinforces the mad 'cake and eat it' approach that is the figment of imagination that exists only in Westminster and not elsewhere in the EU," they said.

A source close to Starmer told BI that the single market amendment was designed to "set out the principles of what we want a future single market deal to look like" and to act as a "starting point" in negotiations.

"We believe it opens the door for a far more constructive negotiation because, unlike the Government, we're accepting the need for shared institutions, common regulatory standards, no new impediments to trade," they added.

The European Commission is yet to respond to our request for comment.

REUTERS/Olivier Hoslet/Pool

Labour MPs set to rebel on EEA

MPs will on Wednesday vote on an amendment to the Brexit bill that could keep force THeresa May to change course and stay in the European Economic Area.

The Labour leadership are set to abstain on the vote. However, news that senior EU figures view Labour's single market policy as unworkable will likely fuel calls from pro-EU Labour MPs for their colleagues to rebel against Corbyn and vote for the EEA amendment later today.

Former Shadow Cabinet ministers Owen Smith and Chuka Umunna, plus MPs including Stephen Kinnock, Alison McGovern and Wes Streeting have all called on Corbyn to embrace the Norway option.

At least 60 Labour MPs are preparing to join other opposition MPs and a handful of Conservative rebels by voting for the EEA amendment today, BI has been told. However, this will not be off to inflict a defeat on the government.

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