Barry Gardiner, the shadow trade secretary, has described the Good Friday agreement as a shibboleth that was being “played up” in the Brexit negotiations for economic rather than political reasons.

Answering questions at a thinktank session in Brussels last month, Gardiner suggested there was no reason to fear that a border with customs controls would lead to a return of paramilitary activity.

He also said: “I think we must also recognise that there are real economic reasons why people have played up the issue of the Irish border and the need to have the shibboleth of the Good Friday agreement. And that is because it is hugely in the Republic of Ireland’s economic interest to make sure that there is no tariff and no external border there.”

The remarks, from one of Labour’s inner group of Brexit decision-makers, strike a markedly different tone to the party’s existing policy. Jeremy Corbyn restated Labour’s opposition to the re-emergence of a hard border as a principle of the future relationship in a keynote speech in February.

Quick guide What are Brexit options now? Four scenarios Show Hide Staying in the single market and customs union The UK could sign up to all the EU’s rules and regulations, staying in the single market – which provides free movement of goods, services and people – and the customs union, in which EU members agree tariffs on external states. Freedom of movement would continue and the UK would keep paying into the Brussels pot. We would continue to have unfettered access to EU trade, but the pledge to “take back control” of laws, borders and money would not have been fulfilled. This is an unlikely outcome and one that may be possible only by reversing the Brexit decision, after a second referendum or election. The Norway model Britain could follow Norway, which is in the single market, is subject to freedom of movement rules and pays a fee to Brussels – but is outside the customs union. That combination would tie Britain to EU regulations but allow it to sign trade deals of its own. A “Norway-minus” deal is more likely. That would see the UK leave the single market and customs union and end free movement of people. But Britain would align its rules and regulations with Brussels, hoping this would allow a greater degree of market access. The UK would still be subject to EU rules. The Canada deal A comprehensive trade deal like the one handed to Canada would help British traders, as it would lower or eliminate tariffs. But there would be little on offer for the UK services industry. It is a bad outcome for financial services. Such a deal would leave Britain free to diverge from EU rules and regulations but that in turn would lead to border checks and the rise of other “non-tariff barriers” to trade. It would leave Britain free to forge new trade deals with other nations. Many in Brussels see this as a likely outcome, based on Theresa May’s direction so far. No deal Britain leaves with no trade deal, meaning that all trade is governed by World Trade Organization rules. Tariffs would be high, queues at the border long and the Irish border issue severe. In the short term, British aircraft might be unable to fly to some European destinations. The UK would quickly need to establish bilateral agreements to deal with the consequences, but the country would be free to take whatever future direction it wishes. It may need to deregulate to attract international business – a very different future and a lot of disruption.

In the key passage, which also signed Labour up to staying in a customs union, the Labour leader said the Good Friday agreement, whose 20th anniversary falls on Tuesday, was a great achievement. “We must continue to support the restoration of the Northern Ireland assembly and to ensure we maintain the situation of no hard border in Northern Ireland,” he said.

In prepared remarks delivered in Brussels and posted on his website, Gardiner echoed that position. “Labour called for a deal that delivers tariff free goods trade … preserving the status quo in Ireland without a hard border so as not to jeopardise the 20 years of peace on that island between north and south,” he said.

But in a Q&A afterwards, he suggested there would be little such threat. A history of previous paramilitary attacks on British military border posts “doesn’t mean putting in a normal border relationship when one party is no longer in the EU will bring back paramilitary activity”, Gardiner said. “That is to confuse cause and effect.”

When the Labour website Red Roar reported the remarks Gardiner tweeted: “Pity you didn’t bother to read what I actually said which has been on my website for weeks”, linking to the text of the speech. The Guardian, however, has heard a recording of the Q&A including the shibboleth and played up remarks.

The event, on Labour’s plans for the UK’s future relationship with the EU, was organised by the Rosa Luxembourg Foundation, which is associated with Germany’s Die Linke party and European trade unions.

Labour has worked hard to build consensus on Brexit policy. Only days after Gardiner’s remarks, Owen Smith was sacked as shadow northern Ireland minister for calling for a second referendum on any Brexit deal in an article for the Guardian.

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On Monday, Smith, a leading supporter of the Open Britain campaign, said Gardiner’s remarks were reckless and plain wrong. “I worked in Northern Ireland with Barry and it is remarkable that he can display so little understanding of the vital and continuing importance of the Good Friday agreement, or of the essential need to avoid any hardening of the border in Ireland,” he said.

He accused Gardiner of being an “ideological Brexiter” whowas putting leaving the EU before everything else. “Labour members will be particularly shocked, but it should concern people in every party and none that there now seems to be a substantial group of senior politicians – from [the Tory MEP] Daniel Hannan to Barry Gardiner – who are prepared to sacrifice the Good Friday agreement in order to deliver Brexit.”

Gardiner is a critic of a customs union that would prevent, as it almost certain would, the UK from making its own trade deals and imposed the obligation on the UK to accept the same terms as EU member states in deals like CETA, the EU’s free trade deal with Canada.

The EU has also made preventing the re-emergence of a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic as a non-negotiable position. The British government’s proposals for a technological solution or a system of regulatory equivalence that would make border checks unnecessary have been described as “magical thinking”.



