Labour hints at backing Brexit deal without promise of referendum

Labour is prepared to sign up to a Brexit deal with the government without the promise of a referendum attached if cross-party talks make significant progress in the coming days, one of the party’s negotiators has said.

Rebecca Long-Bailey, the shadow business secretary, has been attending the negotiations alongside the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, and the shadow Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer.

Many at Westminster believe the talks, convened by Theresa May after her deal was rejected three times and due to resume this week, are destined to fail.

But Long-Bailey insisted negotiations had been productive and “gone into a lot of detail”; and hinted that the government was signalling a willingness to compromise on some issues, including workers’ rights.

“There has been movement in specific areas – we’ve had fantastic discussions on workers’ rights, for example, and the government seems quite amenable to moving towards what I’ve been asking for. We’re waiting at the moment to see if that turns into pens on paper,” she told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge.

Asked if a second Brexit referendum was a “red line” for Labour in the talks, Long-Bailey said: “I wouldn’t couch it in terms of a second referendum; but our party policy has always been that firstly we want to get a Brexit deal that puts our economy and living standards first and protects our environmental protections, workplace protections, health and safety standards.”

“We want a customs union arrangement in order to keep our borders open, so that our manufacturing industry isn’t detrimentally affected, and we keep the movement of goods flowing as freely as possible. And we want a strong single market relationship.”

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Source: Sky News