Marr savages Keir Starmer as Labour MP says UK should pay EU INDEFINITELY after Brexit
LABOUR’S shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer faced a stinging slap down by the BBC’s Andrew Marr after he set out Labour’s “cut and paste” plans for Brexit, including paying to the EU indefinitely after Brexit.
'It's the worst of all worlds!' Marr slams Labour's Brexit strategy
Andrew Marr said Labour had backed itself “into a very unpleasant corner” over its Brexit strategy that would infuriate Leave voters.
Marr probed the politician after he confirmed Labour’s plan for Brexit, which included full alignment as the only option for the Irish border, remaining in the single market and continued payments to the Brussels bloc.
Sir Keir told the BBC programme: “We have got a choice when we leave about whether we stay aligned or not. It doesn’t mean we’ve got to exercise that choice in a way that makes it more difficult for us to trade. We’ve got a choice and we can choose to stay aligned. "
But Marr hit out at the shadow Brexit secretary and said: “After your negotiation with the EU, we carry on paying money in, we have very easy movement of people back and forward.
We are going to copy and paste and follow the EU regulations even though we don’t have a vote
“So those people who voted to take our money back, those people who voted to cut immigration will not be happy and we are going to copy and paste and follow the EU regulations even though we don’t have a vote.
“That is by any standards, the worst of all worlds. You have backed yourself into a very unpleasant corner.”
Sir Keir said it would not be the “worst of all worlds” to “continue to trade successfully with Europe”.
He said: “I really don’t see how it’s the worst of all worlds to have a solution that works in Ireland.
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“These are serious choices about the future of Britain and having no hard border and being able to trade successfully with Europe in the future is a choice that we are entitled to make.”
Marr said: “Ok, we are going to take their regulations without a vote. We are going to carry on with a big migration back and forward and we are going to pay money for the privilege.”
Sir Keir said his Brexit strategy is not “cut and paste” and the negotiation is a matter that would be discussed with the European Union.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker agreed on Friday that enough progress was made on key Brexit issues in order to move on to trade talks.
The Brexit deal has received a mixture of responses, with some Brexiteers insisting Britain is better off to walk away with no deal.
Leading Leave campaigner Nigel Farage wrote on Twitter: “A deal in Brussels is good news for Mrs May as we can now move on to the next stage of humiliation.”
Tory MP John Redwood, a former adviser to Margaret Thatcher, said: “The two most important elements to take from this agreement are – nothing is agreed until everything is agreed and no deal is better than a bad deal.
“If everything does not now go smoothly, the Government should be clear that it will not give that money and all talks are off."