Labour MPs representing Leave-voting constituencies have urged Sir Keir Starmer to dismiss demands from pro-EU figures within the party seeking a return to Brussels.Jo White, the Bassetlaw MP who leads Labour’s Red Wall group, insisted the party should concentrate on economic priorities rather than relitigating the 2016 referendum.”Now is not the time or the place to be talking about going back into the EU,” she told The Sun. “What we need to focus on is good trade deals and what is best for our economy.”Ms White added: “I don’t want to spend the next three years looking at the past, we have to look forward.”
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Her colleague Natalie Fleet, who represents Bolsover where seven in 10 voters backed Leave, cautioned against reigniting old divisions.She said: “While London may want to rejoin, areas like mine that voted 70 per cent to leave definitely do not… In an increasingly divided world, the last thing we need is to divide the country all over again by restarting this debate.”The backlash from Red Wall MPs came after London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan called for Labour to make EU membership a central pledge at the next general election.Speaking to Italian newspaper La Repubblica, Sir Sadiq argued that rejoining the bloc had become “inevitable” given shifting global circumstances.”I see on a daily basis the damage Brexit has done to not just London, but to Londoners, the damage economically, socially and culturally,” he said.Sir Sadiq, whose city voted heavily to remain in 2016, pointed to Donald Trump’s return to the White House and mounting international instability as compelling reasons to revisit the question.”It is an inevitable and increasingly necessary destiny, in an incredibly unstable world and with Donald Trump in power in America,” he declared, adding: “Europe is our only security.”The mayor outlined a phased approach, suggesting Britain should first rejoin the customs union and single market during this parliament before seeking full EU membership.LATEST DEVELOPMENTSRachel Reeves declares Brexit has ‘not been good’ and Britain should ‘absolutely align’ with EUNottinghamshire strawberry farmer reveals eye-watering £1.2million bill from Keir Starmer’s ‘Brexit betrayal’ resetKeir Starmer’s EU reset collides with reality as bombshell new report shatters Great Remainer lieTrade minister Sir Chris Bryant further fuelled the row by declining to rule out a future campaign to rejoin the EU.”I think we should be immensely ambitious about our relationship with the European Union,” he told Sky News.Sir Chris was scathing about the promises made during the 2016 referendum campaign.”You know what we were promised in the Brexit referendum, which incidentally was a pack of lies, we were promised frictionless trade,” he said. “Give me frictionless trade however you want it and do it fast.”His comments, combined with Sir Sadiq’s intervention, sparked fury among MPs in former industrial heartlands who fear the party is drifting towards positions that alienate their constituents.Chancellor Rachel Reeves has also signalled a shift in tone, declaring this week that diverging from EU regulations would become “the exception, not the norm” for British economic policy.Downing Street moved swiftly to distance the Prime Minister from the pro-EU interventions, insisting the government’s manifesto commitments remained firmly in place.”We will not be rejoining the customs union, the single market or returning to freedom of movement,” the PM’s official spokesman stated. “Those are our red lines as per the Government’s manifesto.”The spokesman emphasised that strengthening ties with Brussels did not represent any retreat from Brexit.”Improving our relationship with the EU is in no way rowing back on Brexit,” he said. “This is about taking sovereign decisions in the national interest while sticking to our red lines.”However, Downing Street acknowledged the government was pursuing enhanced economic cooperation with the continent, noting that abandoning the customs union would undermine valuable trade agreements already secured with the United States and India.The manifesto pledges, officials confirmed, would apply throughout the current parliament.
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