How can Labour call itself a government-in-waiting when it refuses to debate Brexit?

Corbyn might be persuaded to go further on the single market. He should do so; to end austerity and pump more money into public services, Labour could not afford to cut links with the UK’s biggest market

Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer has called for the UK to remain in the single market and customs union during the transitional deal (AFP/Getty)

Jeremy Corbyn is learning the art of leadership. His general election performance has given him a new confidence, which shines through in his (once tetchy, now relaxed) media interviews. Journalists on right-wing newspapers grumbled into their wine in Brighton on Sunday after Corbyn did not “commit news” during an interview with the BBC’s Andrew Marr.

When he became Labour leader, Team Corbyn was wary of the slick communications which were New Labour’s trademark. Now they realise there is nothing “right-wing” (their favourite insult) about getting your message over.

Similarly, Corbyn has adopted the old tricks used by Tony Blair and other predecessors to avoid embarrassing votes and defeats at Labour’s annual conference. For years, Corbyn and his left-wing allies complained that the leadership stitched up the conference with the help of the trade unions (who have a 50-50 share of the votes with constituency parties). Now the boot is on the left foot. Momentum, the Corbyn fan club, used their power among the Labour membership to ensure that delegates did not vote for a conference debate on whether Labour should support permanent membership of the single market, on which the party is divided.

Instead, the conference will approve a bland statement saying Labour will “fight for a Brexit deal that prioritises jobs and the economy and protects rights”. Big deal. It says nothing about the UK-EU relationship in the long term.

Ironically, Corbyn is promising more internal democracy to reflect the party’s impressive growth to 570,000 members. But here he was doing a bit of “command and control” that Blair would have been proud of. “It’s like ‘Animal Farm’,” one Corbyn critic groaned. “It is genuinely funny to see Jeremy acting like this.” Welcome to the topsy-turvy Labour Party.

Corbyn allies insist it was the lesser of two evils to avoid a debate that would have exposed Labour’s divisions. Yet the row over the conference being muzzled dominated media headlines, so the tactic hardly worked.

At one level we can hardly blame the Labour leader for sticking to an approach that served him so well at the June election. By keeping his options open, he attracted the votes of Leavers and Remainers. While many of Corbyn’s middle-class supporters oppose Brexit, he needs a bigger coalition to win power and so cannot afford to alienate working-class Leave voters.

Many have concerns about immigration; Corbyn is anxious about committing to the single market because of its free movement tablet of stone. “Brexit is work in progress so it makes sense to keep an open mind,” argued one Corbynista. “He wants to give the Tories enough rope to hang themselves.”

To be fair, Labour’s policy has become clearer since the election. Last month, Sir Keir Starmer, the Shadow Brexit Secretary, won Corbyn’s support for the party to support single market and customs union membership during the transitional period after the UK formally leaves in 2019.

In a move welcomed by Labour pro-Europeans, Starmer told the Brighton conference on Monday that “remaining in a form of customs union with the EU is a possible end destination for Labour”. He said the party was “flexible” over whether to negotiate a new single market relationship, or work up from a bespoke trade deal.

I suspect Starmer favours the former – a reformed single market with some changes to free movement. He believes Theresa May’s likely goal of a “Canada plus plus” free-trade agreement, covering services as well as goods (unlike the EU-Canada deal), is a fantasy because the Government wants to break free from EU regulations. So Labour’s policy could harden further.

Corbyn is riding high this week, but needs to mind his back on Brexit. It is the one issue on which he is out of step with the members who adore him. There is potential for a dangerous alliance between the Labour grassroots, including young recruits, pro-EU Blairites and the unions.

A growing number of Labour MPs believe that Brexit can be stopped, even if they judge it too soon to say so in public. Some 70 per cent of Labour voters back another referendum, according to a survey by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research. Corbyn is unlikely to go that far when Parliament debates a referendum, as he would be accused of trying to overturn the public's vote for Brexit.

But he might be persuaded to go further on the single market. He should do so; to end austerity and pump more money into public services. Labour could not afford to cut links with the UK’s biggest market.

A genuine sense of excitement, energy and optimism at the Labour conference makes the party feel like one which has just won an election, rather than suffered a brilliant defeat. Indeed, both Emily Thornberry, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, and Len McCluskey, the Unite leader, have argued that Labour didn’t lose the election – because the Tories did.

Corbyn should discourage such dangerous talk. He should also recognise that Labour will not look like a government-in-waiting when it shies away from a proper debate on the most critical issue facing the country.