Labour’s divisions over Brexit have been exposed afresh, as MPs from leave constituencies hit back against the idea that membership of the European economic area (EEA) is the best outcome for Britain.



Keir Starmer addressed a backbenchers’ meeting on Monday night, followed by what MPs described as a forceful display of unity from backbenchers and shadow ministers in support of the party’s official position.

Jeremy Corbyn is expected to whip his MPs to abstain when a House of Lords amendment to the EU withdrawal bill, aimed at keeping open the option of EEA membership, is voted on in the House of Commons on Wednesday.

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Members of the EEA, which include Norway and Liechtenstein, accept the constraints of the single market – including EU regulations and free movement – without having a seat at the table in Brussels or Strasbourg.

A vocal group of rebel backbenchers, including Chuka Umunna and Stephen Kinnock, have been urging colleagues to support the amendment, believing it is the best off-the-shelf alternative to full EU membership.

But some colleagues from pro-Brexit constituencies reject EEA membership, because they fear it could signal to voters that Labour hopes to overturn the referendum result.

Gloria De Piero, the MP for Ashfield in Nottinghamshire, said: “We just want to make sure our voices are heard. In seats like mine, because colleagues who have sincerely held views are very vocal, about their desire not to leave the single market, my constituents often think that we are a remain party.

“My constituents aren’t against all immigration, which is how they are sometimes portrayed – they want control of immigration.”

Gareth Snell, who defeated then Ukip leader Paul Nuttall in Stoke-on-Trent Central, used a post for the blog Labour List, to send a similar message.

“Most Labour MPs are in seats that voted leave. My constituents could rightly ask whether we have really left the EU if we are still subject to all the rules, regulations and obligations that come from membership,” he wrote.

“What message are we, as a Labour party, sending to voters in these seats if we simply turn away from the spirit of the referendum result? What hope can we have to win back those traditional seats we need to win in order to form the next government if we tell the voters in those communities that we know better than they do?”



The MP for Warley, John Spellar, said he was still considering how to vote on the EEA amendment. “It involves free movement – that’s the crucial issue,” he said. “The views of the public were very clear: even among many of those who voted remain, they had major concerns about it.”

A Labour frontbencher, Laura Smith, is said to have told friends that she is considering resigning her role as shadow cabinet office minister in order to vote against the EEA amendment, rather than follow the party whip to abstain. Smith, who was elected in 2017, has a majority of just 46 in her Crewe and Nantwich seat, a pro-leave area.

Starmer addressed a group of pro-EEA rebels on Monday, in a last-ditch attempt to convince them not to back the amendment.

But one MP who attended Monday’s meeting said Starmer was “left in no doubt about the strength of feeling”; another said the two sides were “talking past each other”.

Some who once chided Corbyn as a hard-left ideologue now complain that the party’s current position is determined by “triangulation”.

At the parliamentary Labour party meeting on Monday night, MPs spoke forcefully in favour of a display of unity. Starmer told MPs it appeared some Conservative rebels were wavering on crucial votes and Labour had to deploy all its efforts into trying to keep them on board on two crucial amendments – on the customs union and a vote on the exit deal.

Many MPs who stood up to speak backed the shadow Brexit secretary, including Caroline Flint and Lloyd Russell-Moyle. “We’re undergoing an episode of almost painful tribal loyalty,” one quipped on the way out of the room.

Others were less than convinced. “It was an utterly banal argument from Keir tonight that somehow we should carry on not saying what we want so that everyone can find a home in Labour – to the point of not standing for anything at all,” one pro-EEA backbencher said.

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The EEA amendment was the only one of the 15 made by peers as the government’s flagship Brexit bill passed through the House of Lords, that is not supported by the Labour frontbench.

Last week Starmer tabled his own, alternative version of the amendment, which would strike out the phrase EEA, and replace it with a pledge to retain “full access” to the “internal market” of the EU, based on “shared institutions”.

But he made clear Labour would not be able to sign up to unfettered freedom of movement.

The new wording was regarded as another step towards a softening of Labour’s Brexit position, but the EEA rebels believe it was what one called a “unicorn”, which the EU27 would never sign up to. “There’s nothing wrong with it in theory – it just doesn’t exist,” one rebel said.

Starmer rejected the idea he was turning down the opportunity to defeat the government over the issue last week, saying Labour was too divided to back the EEA amendment even if the leadership whipped in favour of it.