Labour supporter and former foreign secretary David Owen on the agreement reached between Keir Starmer and Jeremy Corbyn

As a Labour supporter not yet ready to renew my membership, it is good to see Keir Starmer’s position agreed with Jeremy Corbyn.

On leaving the EU in March 2019 we would stay a contracting party to the EEA agreement for the implementation period, which the prime minister announced would be necessary early this year, for two to three years.

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Labour should be careful, however, not to conflate the single market and the customs union. The former is an enhanced free trade area, the latter is a protectionist club that is harmful to UK consumers and overseas producers of agricultural goods (in Brazil, Kenya, Australia, NZ, etc). It also raises land values and distorts land use in ways that are damaging to housing policy and to the natural environment.

Also, while in the EEA, the UK, as a non-EU member, would not be under the ECJ but the Efta court. The UK would also have a limited capacity to tighten immigration controls. We would be free to have our own fishing and agricultural policies.

This is a negotiating position with the 27 other members of the EU on which all who recognise the need to accept the referendum result can combine.

David Owen

Foreign secretary 1977-79

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