Rachel Reeves accused of wanting to unwind Brexit ‘through stealth’ as shadow chancellor talks up closer ties with EU to boost the economy

Rachel Reeves has been accused of wanting to unwind Brexit ‘through stealth’ after she set out plans to seek closer ties with the EU if Labour wins the general election.

The shadow chancellor suggested she would push to revisit parts of Boris Johnson‘s Brexit deal should her party take office after 4 July.

This would include closer alignment with Brussels rules in areas such as chemicals, as well as a veterinary deal, better touring rights for British artists, and greater mutual recognition of qualifications for City of London workers.

Ms Reeves said this was not an ‘exclusive’ list, telling the Financial Times: ‘We would look to improve our trading relationship with Europe, and do trade deals around the world.’

‘I don’t think anyone voted Leave because they were not happy that chemicals regulations were the same across Europe,’ Ms Reeves added.

‘When my constituency voted Leave it was purely because of immigration.’

The shadow chancellor insisted Labour would not cross its red lines on Britain’s relationship with the EU.

She reiterated Labour would not seek to rejoin the bloc’s single market or customs union and ruled out a return of freedom of movement or a deal on youth mobility.

Ms Reeves said ‘the majority of people in the City have not regarded Brexit as being a great opportunity for their businesses’ and claimed that financial services were ‘pretty much excluded’ from the Brexit deal.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, speaking to port workers in Southampton on a campaign visit alongside Ms Reeves today, described Britain’s Brexit deal as ‘botched’.

‘We took a decision to leave the EU, so we’re not going to go back in,’ he said.

‘But we think the deal we’ve got is botched, it’s not good enough. And I think many businesses would say we need something that works better for us.

‘Because if you make it more difficult to trade, guess what, it’s not so successful from our point of view.

‘So we do think there’s a better deal to be had. Obviously that will have to be negotiated.

‘It does not mean going back in, but it does mean an improvement on what we’ve got for businesses.

‘I think there’s scope, actually, for improvement in other areas as well – on defence, on security, on development, and on research and education etc.’

‘We want to get a better deal because, at the end of the day, we want you and those that are coming in and out of this port to be able to do as easily as is possible being outside of the EU and not to make life harder.’

Senior Tories accused Sir Keir and Ms Reeves of wanting to leave Britain as a ‘vassal state’ by aligning more closely with the EU. 

Former Conservative MP and ex-Brexit minister David Jones told MailOnline: ‘There is little doubt that Labour intend to do as much as they possibly can to reverse Brexit, short of actually saying so.

‘Similarly, we see a push for the integration of the UK into EU defence structures.

‘Actually, what they are pursuing would be worse than EU membership. We would become a vassal state, with no seat at the table, which would make it all the easier for Labour to push for rejoining.

‘In other words, the UK would become a full EU member state once again through stealth.’

Lord David Frost, who was the UK’s chief Brexit negotiator, accused Ms Reeves of ‘freelancing beyond her manifesto already on EU issues’.

‘The Labour manifesto says nothing about aligning chemicals rules – indeed they are a key component of the single market they claim they do not want to rejoin,’ he said.

‘It’s a silly argument even in its own terms. Except for free movement, people didn’t vote against any single subset of single market rules – they voted against having the rules set in Brussels. Labour seem to be quite happy with that.’