Labour to scrap May’s Brexit plan

London, April 25 

Britain’s main opposition Labour party today unveiled its own Brexit plan, saying it will scrap the ruling Conservative White Paper on the UK’s exit from the EU if it wins the general election in June.

The central plank of the Labour strategy will be to unilaterally guarantee the rights of EU citizens living and working in the UK.

British Prime Minister Theresa May has repeatedly linked this with a reciprocal EU guarantee of the rights of British citizens domiciled in European countries.

There are an estimated 3 million citizens of other EU countries living in the UK, and about 1.2 million British expats living elsewhere in Europe. Labour’s shadow Brexit minister, Sir Kier Starmer, set out his party’s Brexit plans for the upcoming June 8 general election in a speech in London today.

He said the White Paper will have a strong emphasis on retaining the benefits of the Single Market and the Customs Union as Labour know that is vital to protecting jobs and the economy.

“And we will approach negotiations in a completely different way to a Tory Brexit: negotiating for the many, not the few,” he said. Starmer stressed that while Labour had accepted Brexit, it wanted a deal that would prioritise jobs and workers’ rights. — PTI