A Labour shadow minister has let slip a desire to reverse Brexit and take Britain back into the European Union's common market.
Asked if the UK could ever return to the single market, she said: "I hope so!"
"I really hope so, because that is the way in which... customs union and single market at the very least I think," McMorrin said. "In the future I hope we will return to that. But at the moment there is not really the scope for having that conversation."
The shadow minister said that if Labour could break its 12-year electoral duck and return to government, "there may be some scope then to re-negotiate" with Brussels — hinting at a full return to the European bloc.
A Labour spokesman distance the party from McMorrin's comments, saying its position was "clear" that "we need a strong relationship with EU partners but that does not involve membership of the customs union or the single market."
"I hope, eventually, that we will get back into the single market and customs union, and who knows in the future," speculated McMorrin.
But a junior government minister accused the opposition of taking the electorate for fools.
"Sir Keir said there wasn’t scope for major renegotiation, now Labour are plotting to rejoin in all but name," Home Office minister Tom Pursglove said. "That would mean open-door immigration and Parliament being overruled by Brussels."
Undermining McMorrin's argument, the Office for National Statistics reported on Tuesday that Britain's "EU exports have increased for the third consecutive month in April 2022 and are at the highest levels since records began."
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer's stance since taking over from his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn has been to respect the 2016 Brexit vote.
But that is a U-turn from the line Starmer took as Corbyn' shadow Brexit secretary just two months before the 2019 general election, when he backed a resolution by the Labour Party conference to demand a re-run of the referendum and vowed to campaign to remain in the EU.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson led the Conservative Party to a landslide victory in that election with the simple slogan "get Brexit done", winning some 50 formerly-safe Labour seats in the northern 'Red Wall' constituencies.