How should the Labour Party respond to Brexit? As one of its MPs I’m clear: I want our party to stand up to the Government and stop it doing terrible harm to jobs, opportunities and our economy.

In my view, as a minimum, that means voting to back European Economic Area membership, which would allow us to trade freely with the rest of the European Union. That position has just been backed by the House of Lords with strong support from Labour peers.

But Labour’s front bench in the Commons holds a nonsensical position on this. Labour Brexiteers claim that EEA access would be impossible after Brexit. They claim the UK would be a “rule-taker” but lack influence if we take an approach which would leave Britain in the single market but outside the EU.

There is an obvious alternative: stay in the EU, retaining our full voice, veto and representatives, as I and most Labour members would welcome. This is portrayed as somehow a snub to “the will of the people” despite even the most prominent Tory Brexiteer, Daniel Hannan MEP, now suggesting not everyone voted uniformly to leave absolutely everything altogether. But in echoing the rule-taker fallacy, Labour’s front bench risks marching to Theresa May’s maximum-damage tune.

The insistence that the UK must not end up as a rule-taker ignores reality. If our manufacturing, agriculture, food and drink sectors are to be able to continue trading with the EU, they will need to work with rules set across Europe. What’s the alternative? The UK can hardly expect to set different rules and then expect the entire EU and its existing trade partners to follow our diktats. The idea that the EU 27 will accept new UK jurisdiction over trade and standards is risible. It offers no logical future position for any Government.

No country is in a trade and customs relationship with the EU on the basis of “rule setting”. Turkey accepts EU rules on standards but has no say at the table where it sets the rules. Norway accepts free movement of people without a vote. Countries agree with the need to work within EU rules in order to gain access to the wealthiest trade bloc on the planet. Their economies benefit as a result — and ours should too.

If we don’t back the EEA proposal and instead drift off into some isolated position, with our future trade held back by barriers, we will lose access to markets that we depend on, see unemployment rise and austerity go on. That would be devastating. And it’s not what the Labour Party should be about.

There’s still time for us to change our policy, oppose this Government and back an approach which leaves us free to trade and protects jobs and the poorest in society.