Ed Miliband has called on Labour to listen to Brexit voters and avoid becoming the preserve of the 48% who wanted to remain, as the party opted not to discuss the EU as a major topic at its autumn conference.
The former Labour leader warned it would be dangerous for the party to try to appeal solely to remain voters, despite its campaign to stay in the EU, as Brexit voters need the party to speak for them as well.
He also called on party members to unite around Jeremy Corbyn as leader in order to provide a strong opposition at a time of “national crisis caused by Brexit … The precondition of talking about this issue is [understanding] the scale of rejection of mainstream politics that it represents and the scale of the anger that is underlying the vote,” he said.
“This was not a nasty accident that happened on the way to the referendum. It was something much more profound. Nor was it a bunch of 17.5 million racists who decided to vote to leave. Nor was it a whole bunch of people duped about £350m for the NHS … It is about immigration … But also a deeper sense of discontent about people’s place in the country and whether there is a place for them.”
He called on Labour to “hear people’s message they are telling us” and dismissed the idea that the party should wholly carry on the fight of the remain campaign as “nonsense”.
Miliband went on to endorse serious electoral reform after the Brexit vote, saying it was a “taste test about whether you are furious about the dissatisfaction”.
Corbyn has made clear that he thinks the result of the referendum should be respected, unlike his defeated challenger, Owen Smith, who called for a second referendum on any Brexit deal.
On Sunday the leader strongly rejected a “hard Brexit”, which would cut trade and immigration ties with the EU. He has previously defended free movement, saying people were more worried about the undercutting of wages.
That position is not shared by a number of Corbyn’s critics, including Chuka Umunna, the former shadow business secretary, who has suggested there does need to be a curb on free movement. He said it was “the big issue” that motivated many people to vote to leave and cannot be ignored.
In a sign of tensions over the issue, Denis MacShane, a former Europe minister, warned that such views were allowing the party to wander down a “red Ukip” path.
A discussion about Brexit was not one of the eight motions chosen by party authorities for debate at the party’s conference in Liverpool.
But Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, will focus on the subject during her speech on Monday, when she will say that the party supports the idea of continuing billions of pounds in EU funding for regeneration, among other projects, after Brexit.
Before Thornberry’s speech Labour will release an 80-page document listing all the projects and rights that could potentially be at risk from Brexit, including legislation on air quality and funding for peace and reconciliation projects in Northern Ireland. “We can guarantee that a future Labour government will make up any shortfall in structural funding into the 2020s and beyond. And the same will go for the funding of peace and reconciliation projects in Northern Ireland. The communities who stand to lose out most from Brexit must be looked after first,” she will say.
The government’s failure to commit to continued funding for all EU projects falls short of the Brexit campaign’s promise to guarantee the cash until at least 2020.
May’s government has also declined to endorse Vote Leave’s pledge of an extra £100m a week for the NHS and rejected outright the idea of an Australian-style points system for immigration that admits people on the basis of their skills.
However, Boris Johnson, one of the leaders of the out campaign, who is now foreign secretary, pledged on Sunday that the NHS will get substantial extra funding after Brexit. The foreign secretary strayed from his brief during BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show, as he was pressed on the extra money for the NHS after Andrew Lansley, the former health secretary, suggested at least £5bn a year could be available to the NHS after Brexit.
Asked whether the government could guarantee a “really substantial” extra amount of money per week for the NHS by 2020, Johnson said: “Well, yes, in the sense that clearly once we leave, and that isn’t possible until the final moment that of the change in our arrangements, and we take back control of the budgets we contribute to the EU.
“Once that happens, clearly it will be possible for the UK government to spend people’s money on our priorities. And the number one priority for most people is the NHS. It sounds to me Andrew Lansley has got it right.”
Johnson also aired his views on when the UK should leave the EU, despite No 10 sources making clear last week that this was a decision for May alone. He said the process should not be allowed to drag on and the UK should be out before May 2019 to avoid a new batch of British MEPs being elected to Brussels. That would imply article 50 would have to be triggered before May next year to allow two years of negotiations to take place.
“There’s European elections coming down the track and people will be wondering whether we will be wanting to send a fresh batch of MEPs to an institution we are going to be leaving,” Johnson said.
