Senior European Union officials have reportedly confided to the UK press that they see the Labour Party's vision for the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union as "unworkable," describing it as "cakeism" and accusing the Party of wanting to pick and choose which European institutions it continues to remain a member of.
The officials reportedly took greatest issue with Labour's stance towards the Single Market which, under a Corbyn-led government Britain would either leave or seek to negotiate a new relationship along the lines of that existing between the EU and Norway which would retain full access for the UK but place curbs on immigration and the flow of capital.
Exclusive: Senior EU figures have privately rubbished Labour's "full access" single market policy — as laid out in the frontbench amendment last week — as unworkable "cake-ism," I've been told. https://t.co/7J0vqrQogW
— Adam Payne (@adampayne26) June 13, 2018
Labour MPs will today be whipped to back a policy on the single market which EU officials privately say is a non-starter. https://t.co/2gDOW8zPIm
— Adam Bienkov (@AdamBienkov) June 13, 2018
That's the end of that then. The only proposed Brexit which has not been rubbished as a completely unworkable fantasy is the @LibDems exit from Brexit. https://t.co/fOiQsiLSdy
— Jamie Cook 🔶 (@JC_E1X) June 13, 2018
A putative future Labour government would reportedly keep Britain in the European Customs Union however, meaning that the UK would continue to be a part of and would negotiate its international trade deals along with the remaining 27 EU member states rather than striking its own independent relationships.
Mr. Corbyn, widely seen as a Eurosceptic, has had to balance between his support for the result of the June 2016 Brexit referendum and the majority of his MPs who backed the Remain campaign and have already attempted to remove him for not campaigning vigorously enough to maintain Britain's EU membership.