Keir Starmer didn’t deny that Britain would become a “vassal state” of the EU under his proposals in a revealing interview that showed his party’s true colours on Brexit. Labour’s Shadow Brexit Secretary repeatedly refused to rule out his party backing a second referendum, saying only: “we haven’t called for a second referendum”. Under Labour’s proposed ‘Norway style’ treaty, Starmer accepted that there would be:

• Continuing payments to the EU (“Norway pays money in, there may have to be payments”);
• Close to free cross-border movement of labour, described as “easy movement if not free” (“the end of free movement does not mean no movement… of course we would want people to come from the EU to work here”);
• Continued mapping of EU regulations and standards with a copy and paste approach – but with no say over them.

Starmer also didn’t deny that he would rather Britain stayed in the single market outright. This was a significant interview where Starmer showed his true hand. Labour has nothing to offer Brexit voters…