A Labour MP has suggested a Keir Starmer Government should focus on pushing for partial EU membership with access to the single market, in a conference fringe meeting.
Stella Creasy, the MP for Walthamstow in London, said she is “very hopeful” of closer ties within the EU’s central trading bloc, following recent deals struck between the body and other third-party countries.
Ms Creasy told the meeting Labour would want to focus on “how we get as much direct access to the single market as possible and what can be negotiated”.
The EU would likely want to discuss Freedom of Movement if Britain were to ever try rejoining the single market in full.
The MP, an avowed Remainer, cited Moldova as an example of the current deals the EU is striking with countries and suggested Britain should follow suit.
Moldova became an associate member of the EU in 2016, and earlier this year negotiated a full trade liberalisation for agricultural products for one year.
Ms Creasy said: “I think there are grounds to be very hopeful”.
“If you look at whats happening in Europe – Europe does not stand still.
“It is a different entity to the one that we left. There are all sorts of things happening.
“Look at, for example, whats been done with Moldova. The idea that its ‘all in or all out’ just isn’t the case.”
Labour has been keen to keep Brexit off the conference agenda, knowing it could lead to potential embarrassment for the party.
A motion that would have allowed for a mass debate about Brexit on the main stage was kept off the official agenda, preventing a public row about leaving the bloc.
The debate, put forward by Labour Movement for Europe, had been backed by big hitters including form Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock.
Earlier this week Ms Creasy told a fringe reception: “Brexit is like setting your hotel room on fire because you discovered there isn’t a pool”.
Last month Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer told a left-wing conference in Canada that while he won’t reverse Brexit, he wants to stay aligned to the EU as much as possible.
“Most of the conflict with the UK being outside of the EU arises in so far as the UK wants to diverge and do different things to the rest of our EU partners.
“Obviously the more we share values, the more we share a future together, the less the conflict. And actually different ways of solving problems become available.
“Actually we don’t want to diverge, we don’t want to lower standards, we don’t want to rip up environmental standards, working standards for people that work, food standards and all the rest of it.
