You would take us back into the EU! Penny Mordaunt blasts Labour over Brexit
Leaders of four smaller parties all admitted they want to rejoin in the ITV election debate.
Cabinet Minister Penny Mordaunt warned Labour would take Britain back into the European Union by the back door in a heated election debate.
Leaders of the four smaller parties admitted they wanted to rejoin the bloc as they clashed over Brexit.
Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner claimed her party would not seek to return the UK to the bloc - just hours after Sir Keir Starmer vowed to do “anything” to make travel into the union easier.
In a seven-way debate on ITV, the parties were asked if they would ever rejoin the EU or the single market.
Ms Mordaunt replied: “No and if you have a Labour government they will take you back in. They will tie you on defence, on migration, on regulation without any of the benefits of membership.”
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Ms Rayner insisted Labour would not rejoined and said there was “respect” for the result of the referendum to leave.
SNP leader Stephen Flynn said the Labour deputy leader’s response was “shameful”.
For the Liberal Democrats, Daisy Cooper said she “at some point in the future I very much hope so”.
Carla Denyer, the leader of the Green party, said “yes when the time is right” while Plaid Cymru’s leader Rhun ap Iorwerth said he wanted to start with a return to the single market and customs union.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: “No, we are free. Unfortunately we are governed incompetently, but at least they are our mistakes and not somebody else’s.”
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Earlier, Sir Keir told LBC he would do “anything” to make it easier to travel “whether it's in Europe or abroad”.
The Labour leader criticised the terms of Britain’s departure from the bloc.
He said: “I think with the deal that we've got, that Boris Johnson negotiated, we got a botched deal, and that has had an impact.
"And that's why what you see in our manifesto today, as part of our growth plan, is a better deal with the EU. And that is an essential part of our growth plan - to make trading easier, to ensure that we could do some of the research and development that we need, and the education, but also crucially in the area of defence and security.
“So I accept that we've got a botched deal that Boris Johnson inflicted upon us. We could do better than that. And that is essential for the future plans that we have for creating wealth and for growing our economy.”
