Labour mp snubs calls for cross-party team to negotiate brexit

The shadow secretary for trade said the Labour party wanted “full engagement” but refused to welcome a cross party force to get the best deal for Britain’s exit from the Brussels bloc.

Speaking on the Today programme, on BBC Radio 4, Mr Gardiner added “no deal” for the UK would be the “worst possible outcome” for Britons. Asked by radio host Sarah Montague whether he

“ruled out” a cross-party team, the frontbencher said Labour had “set out our stall very clearly”. Montague said: “If you’re talking about what’s the best possible result for the UK, the

Government would go into a negotiating position with the EU in a stronger position if all sides knew that there was cross party support and that could be as the result of some cross party

committee that is a sounding board. “There are ways that are being suggested over the last couple of days and I’m just wondering if that is something you rule out because, perhaps for your

own political reasons, there’s an argument from Labour ‘why should we do that?’. But Mr Gardiner refused to acknowledge a cross-party team was the best way forward. He said: “It’s not about

political reasons, the last thing the Labour party wants to do is to put, what the Conservative did in effect, party interests before country.” Asked again if it was something he would

support, he added: “We’ve set out our stall very clearly in our manifesto about how we believe the Brexit negotiations should go, we now hear that actually many members of Theresa May’s

cabinet actually agree with us about the idea there could be no deal, which is actually the worst possible situation, the worst possible outcome for the British people. THERESA MAY VOWS TO

'GET ON WITH BREXIT' “In Parliament we have been consistently asking for Parliament to have a role in this, for there to be, at the end of the process, that there should be a vote

for Parliament. “These are all the things that Theresa May has been denying for months, so of course we want full involvement, full engagement.” Mr Gardiner highlighted there was already a

Brexit select committee chaired by Hilary Benn and Labour might still back membership of a reformed single market. Meanwhile, Britain's political turmoil means the country will stay in

the EU's customs union, a top Brussels official has claimed. RELATED ARTICLES EU Commissioner Phil Hogan said the results of Thursday's election proves Britons are opposed to

"the notion of a hard Brexit". He said leaving the customs union would be "economic suicide" and that the next government would likely opt for a soft Brexit instead.

Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson is one of those leading the calls for a cross-party team.  She said that in light of the weakened Tory position in Westminster, the Conservatives

now had no choice but to reach a compromise with the other parties in order to push through Brexit.