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Lord Kinnock (proper) says objections to EEA membership are primarily based on "childish leftist phantasm"
Jeremy Corbyn will commit "a critical evasion of obligation" if he doesn't change his stance on Brexit, former Labour chief Lord Kinnock has mentioned.
The peer instructed the Independent that Labour ought to endorse the UK staying within the European Economic Area (EEA) or danger "sacrificing 1000's" of jobs.
Staying within the EEA would imply the UK retained key elements of the one market after leaving the EU.
But Mr Corbyn has opposed this concept because the UK wouldn't make the principles.
A Labour spokesman mentioned the party wouldn't be commenting on Lord Kinnock's remarks.
Lord Kinnock was one of many 83 Labour friends who defied the party management this week and voted for a modification to the EU Withdrawal Bill within the House of Lords to maintain the UK within the EEA.
EEA membership would see the UK retain full entry to the EU's inner market of 300 million customers in return for making monetary contributions and accepting most EU legal guidelines.
Under what is named the "Norway mannequin", free motion legal guidelines would additionally applyso EU residents might transfer to all EEA nations to work and stay.
Norway is considered one of three nations outdoors the EU which is a current EEA member.
Supporters of the plan assume protecting the maximum-possible entry to the one market needs to be the highest precedence.
However critics of the Norway mannequin say it might imply the UK would nonetheless be topic to EU legal guidelines after Brexit, however with no say in how they're made.
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Labour urged its friends to abstain in Tuesday's vote on EEA membership, however 83 of them defied the management and the modification was backed by 245 votes to 218 within the House of Lords.
The problem will now return to the Commons and Lord Kinnock mentioned: "It can be a critical evasion of obligation if Labour didn't seize this opportunity to guard our nation from the rockslide of 'onerous' Brexit."
"Labour must make this problem.
"By supporting continued EEA participation we will finish the prime minister's deference to the cliff-edge kamikaze squad and drive her, or her successor, into the pragmatic patriotism of placing nation earlier than party."
Lord Kinnock defended his refusal to abstain within the EEA vote, as Mr Corbyn had wished, saying: "I don't break the whip evenly.
"In this case, not persevering with within the EEA would imply endangering, sacrificing, 1000's of expert and decently-paid jobs and, with them, the life possibilities of numerous households and communities."
He also stated that objections to EEA membership had been primarily based on "childish leftist phantasm".
Ian Blackford, the SNP's Westminster chief, mentioned he agreed with Lord Kinnock's warning that leaving the one market would "destroy" jobs.
"By strolling hand-in-hand with excessive Tory Brexiteers... Labour might be simply as culpable for the catastrophic injury to the economic system," he added.
The authorities is predicted to hunt to reverse a variety of the Lords amendments when the invoice returns to the Commons.