Labour's Brexit plans have descended into chaos after Jeremy Corbyn was directly contradicted by members of his Shadow Cabinet over his plans to leave the single market.

This weekend both the Labour leader and John McDonnell, his shadow chancellor, revealed that the party is now formally committed to taking Britain out of the single market and the Customs Union.

However Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit and Barry Gardiner, the shadow trade secretary, said that the UK should try to negotiate a new form of single market membership.

Their interventions highlight the split at the heart of Labour over Brexit between Mr Corbyn, who is considered more eurosceptic, and his predominantly pro-European shadow cabinet.

The divisions over the issue are such that the policy was not set out fully in Labour's election manifesto, which instead referred generally to "retaining the benefits of the single market".