First Secretary of State Louise Haigh has twice refused to rule out the prospect of the UK re-joining the EU under Andy Burnham’s premiership.
Asked about the issue following Burnham’s conference speech, she told GB News’ Political Editor Christopher Hope: “Well, the Prime Minister is going to set all that out…later this year there’ll be a UK-EU summit, and the Prime Minister will set it out then.
“But he’s been clear today that Brexit has had consequences; that it hasn’t worked for our economy and for British people or British businesses.
“We’ve got the UK-EU summit later this year, where Hamish Falconer will be leading the negotiations for the government, and top of the list will be getting that food deal, which has driven up prices both for businesses and customers in this country, and has put a border down the Irish Sea, so really risked sort of our relationship with Northern Ireland.
“So tackling that and getting that deal and that agreement will be really important.”
Pressed again, she said: “The Prime Minister has been very clear that he will be setting out the position for the long-term relationship with Europe, our greatest trading partner, later in the year.”
On whether Labour could stop small boats crossing the Channel, she said: “Oh, absolutely. That’s the ambition. And Shabana Mahmood has done an incredible job of driving the numbers down, over 40%.
“We’re not there yet, though. Over 40% down on last year. All the numbers going in the right direction is, it’s absolutely her top priority.”
Asked if the cost of reforming the pensions triple lock would mean some £15 billion to cover the start-up of the National Care Service, Haigh said: “It’s a massive down payment on the National Care Service, and of course, we’re waiting for Louise Casey, Baroness Casey, to set out her proposals for reform next year, and we will take those into consideration and start building the National Care Service.”
She added: “Well, the third leg has been reformed, so it will track average earnings now rather than match them. At the moment, if average earnings increase, then it increases with them in that year. But it will apply on average over a longer term period.
“But it means pensioners will always be protected from inflation, or 2.5% whichever is bigger. And the reason why we didn’t want to match it to average earnings, as was the case under the last Labour government, is because this makes sure that pensioners never receive a derisory increase in their state pension. It will always be at least 2.5% or inflation.”
On public ownership of water firms, she said: “We’ve announced we’re abolishing Thatcher’s ideological ban on public ownership in water, and that we will intervene where companies fail.
“Nobody can say the current water sector is serving the British people. No one can say that companies like Thames Water are serving their customers or the taxpayer.
“So we are introducing a new water regulator in the water bill later this year, and that will have much stronger standards. And he’s asked Angela Eagle to investigate closing the loopholes on banning bonuses for water executives that breach those standards.”
