Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said he agreed with the “basic case” made by many Leave supporters during the 2016 Brexit referendum.
Despite his own backing the Remain campaign, Sir Keir said he understood the desire for more “control” from those who wanted the UK to quit the EU.
“During the Brexit referendum I argued for Remain. But I couldn’t disagree with the basic case that many leave voters made to me,” the Labour leader said in a speech on democratic reform on Monday.
Sir Keir added: “They wanted more control over their lives, they wanted more control over their country. They wanted to create opportunities for the next generation, build communities they felt proud of, have public services they could rely on.
“And I know that in the Scottish referendum in 2014, many of those who voted Yes did so for similar reasons. The same frustration at a Westminster system that seems remote.”
Earlier on Monday, asked if membership of the EU single market would boost economic growth, Sir Keir told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “No at this stage I don’t think it would.”
The Labour leader, who has been accused by the SNP of trying to “out-Brexit” the Tories, added: “There is no case for going back to the EU or going back into the single market. I do think there’s a case for a better Brexit.”
Sir Keir said it was possible to improve on the existing hard Brexit deal with a new veterinary agreement for agri-food products, and called for a comprise to resolve the Northern Ireland Protocol row. “There is a whole host of ways to move forward to a better set of arrangements,” he said.
The Labour leader set out plans to abolish the House of Lords on Monday – promising “the biggest ever transfer of power from Westminster to the British people”.
Gordon Brown joined Sir Keir to unveil the report of the party’s commission on the UK’s future – which the ex-premier headed – at a joint press conference in Leeds.
Mr Starmer hinted that some of the measures – including a new democratic assembly of nations and regions to replace the Lords – may have to wait for a second term Labour government.
Asked if scrapping an unelected Lords could be done in one term, Sir Keir told BBC Breakfast: “I’m very keen that all of the recommendations in the report are carried out as quickly as possible.”
The Labour leader also told Sky News on Monday that he hoped it could be carried out in the first term of a Labour government.
He said all the recommendations in the report, including the proposal to abolish the Lords, are “deliberately written in a way that means they can be implemented within the first five years of a Labour government”.
Despite claims of a rift with Mr Brown over the radical plan to abolish the Lords, Sir Keir made clear he agreed that the “indefensible” Lords should be replaced with an elected second chamber.
Among the Brown report’s 40 recommendations is a call to give local communities new powers over skills, transport, planning and culture to drive growth.
Combined with local growth plans, the report argues this will enable the emergence of hundreds of “clusters” of economic activity in cities and towns across the UK.
New powers over transport, infrastructure, development and planning – including compulsory purchase orders on vacant sites – would be handed to the devolved administrations, the mayors and local authorities.
The report also proposes a series of measures to clean up politics including a new anti-corruption agency, an integrity and ethics commission and a ban on most second jobs for MPs.
