Jess Phillips hints UK could rejoin EU under her party’s leadership

Labour MP Jess Phillips appearing on The Andrew Marr Show. Photograph: Jeff Overs/BBC/PA Wire . - Credit: PA

Labour could campaign for the UK to rejoin the European Union at the next general election if Jess Phillips wins the leadership contest.

The UK might be set to leave the European Union at the end of the month, but one of the leadership contenders for the Labour Party is looking to the future.

Phillips, who was a People’s Vote supporter and backed Remain, said she had not decided what stance to take but had not changed her view on Brexit and still believed voters had made the wrong choice.

She told the BBC’s Andrew Marr: “You would have to look at what is going on at the time. What our job is, for the next three years, is to hold Boris Johnson to account for all the promises.

“So if we are living in an absolute paradise of trade, and we’re totally safe in the world, and we’re not going to worry about having to constantly look to America for our safety and security, then maybe I’ll be proven wrong.

“But the reality is that if our country is safer, if it is more economically viable to be in the EU, then I will fight for that, regardless of how difficult that argument is to make.”

Her comments are at odds with Sir Keir Starmer’s own view on Brexit – who said it was now a time for the party and country to come back together.

He told the same programme: “We are going to leave the EU in the next few weeks and it is important for all of us, including myself, to recognise that the argument about Leave and Remain goes with it. We are leaving. We will have left the EU. This election blew away the argument for a second referendum, rightly or wrongly, and we have to adjust to that situation.”