Sunak Brexit progress should embolden Labour, says Hilary Benn

Rishi Sunak's Brexit deal renegotiation can pave the way for Labour to agree closer EU ties if it wins power, a shadow minister has said.

Hilary Benn said new rules for Northern Ireland adopted in March should give the party a "lot of encouragement".

A Labour win would mean a "new chapter" in post-Brexit relations, he told an event at Labour's annual conference.

Shared interests, he added, meant both sides should seek to boost co-operation.

Labour has ruled out re-joining the EU single market or customs union, but says it wants a closer economic relationship with the bloc if it wins the next general election, expected next year.

Leader Sir Keir Starmer has said his party wants a "much better" deal on trade than the one agreed by Boris Johnson in late 2020.

That agreement is due to be reviewed in 2026, and Labour's lead in opinion polls has led to increased scrutiny of the relationship it would seek if it forms the next government.

Previously chair of the House of Commons' Brexit committee, Mr Benn was promoted back into the shadow cabinet as the Labour's shadow Northern Ireland secretary in September.

In May, as a backbencher, he co-wrote a report recommending closer ties in a number of areas, including a visa waiver for performers and alignment on rules for manufactured products.

He told a conference fringe meeting that, although it did not represent Labour policy, the paper was a "handy checklist" for the sort of changes the party could pursue in office.

He said Labour would seek an agreement on security co-operation with the EU, and greater mutual recognition of qualifications to boost the trade in professional services.

It remains unclear whether Brussels would entertain major changes to the UK's trade deal. Senior EU figures have signalled they do not see rewriting the 2020 agreement as a goal of the review.

Mr Benn said new Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland negotiated by Mr Sunak in late February were a "considerable step forward" in UK-EU relations.

He acknowledged that the deal, known as the Windsor Framework, was not going to be reopened.

But he told party activists the deal "shows what can be done" within the existing structure of the UK's relationship with the EU post-Brexit.

He acknowledged some in Europe had spoken about the review as a chance to "check the oil level and see if it's all working".

"And yet the Windsor Framework was definitely not a minor tweak," he added.

Speaking at the same event, the EU ambassador to the UK said the relationship between the two sides was "starting to enter a much better path".

Pedro Serrano added that the EU was prepared to "continue building" on the 2020 trade deal, but stressed it was already one of the "most ambitious" it had concluded with a non-member country.

Labour MP Stella Creasy, who chairs a party group that pushes for stronger ties with Europe, told the event that reversing Brexit would be "impossible".

But, she added, she hoped the 2026 review would see a "powerful intervention" to boost ties.

She said she wanted to see the party pursue "as much direct access to the single market as possible," adding that it should be "ruthlessly focused" on reducing costs for consumers and easing red tape for businesses.