Labour's Keir Starmer Rejects Call for Norway-Style Brexit Deal

(Bloomberg) -- Labour Brexit spokesman Keir Starmer rejected calls to keep Britain in the European Economic Area after Brexit -- the so-called Norway option -- as pressure builds on the main U.K. opposition party to back closer ties with he bloc.

The type of border infrastructure in place between Norway and Sweden would be unworkable at Ireland-Northern Ireland crossing points and therefore “was not the answer,” Starmer said on the BBC’s “Andrew Marr Show” on Sunday. Instead, Labour is seeking both a “comprehensive customs union” and a “strong single-market relationship that hardwires the benefits of the single market into the future agreement” with the EU, he said.

Starmer was speaking after former Labour leader Neil Kinnock wrote in the Independent newspaper that any refusal by current leader Jeremy Corbyn to back a plan to keep Britain in the EEA would be a “serious evasion of duty.” The House of Lords also voted in favor of EEA membership last week.

To contact the reporter on this story: Stuart Biggs in London at sbiggs3@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Flavia Krause-Jackson at fjackson@bloomberg.net, Steve Geimann, Paul Armstrong

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