Theresa May’s Brexit plan must include Single Market objectives, say Labour
Labour is laying out the characteristics of a Brexit plan in the House of Commons, calling on the government to reveal its hopes for Single Market status.
MPs are debating a motion in parliament today calling on the government to reveal its plans for negotiations with the EU, and the government has lent its support to the motion with an amendment.
However, while it remains uncertain exactly how much information the government will reveal, shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer has now begun filling in the detail of exactly what Labour will demand.
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Any plan, Starmer said, must make sure the government "sets out the position on the Single Market, the customs union, transitional measures and the like."
He added that the plan must include enough detail to end what he called "the circus of uncertainty".
"One member of the cabinet says one thing one day, another member of the cabinet says something else on a different day, and then a spokesperson says no decision has been made," Starmer said.
"That uncertainty is causing anxiety across the UK… it has to end. That uncertainty is causing more damage to this process than anything else at the moment."
He added that sufficient detail must be published to allow scrutiny by both parliamentary groups like the Brexit select committee and the Office for Budget Responsibility.
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Starmer also said that any plan must be published in a "timely" fashion, although he failed to set out a firm deadline.
"I put the government on notice that if it fails to produce a plan by the time we are debating Article 50 legislation if we are, assuming the government doesn't win [in the Supreme Court], amendments from this and possibly from the other side of the House, will be put forward setting out the minimum requirements," he said.