I would rejoin the EU after becoming PM, says Owen Smith

Labour leadership candidate would return to bloc, even if it meant joining the euro

Owen Smith tells Andrew Marr he still supports the UK staying in the EU, 11 September 2016 (BBC)

Owen Smith has said the UK could apply to rejoin the EU if Labour wins power under his leadership – even if it means signing up to the euro and fully open borders.

The leadership hopeful said it would be “sensible and responsible” for the party to adopt the policy if the price of Brexit became a further recession, more harsh cuts and the ripping up of workers’ rights.

Mr Smith has previously called for a second referendum before leaving the EU, arguing that most voters were lied to in the campaign that narrowly backed withdrawal.

But today he went further, suggesting Labour should continue to back EU membership, even if the country has left by the next general election in 2020 – and even if euro-membership was then compulsory.

Mr Smith told the BBC’s Andrew Marr programme that whether Labour, under his leadership, would try to rejoin the EU after Brexit was “a hypothetical question”.

However, he went on: “If we had gone into a further recession, if we had the prospect of another 10 years of Tory austerity, if they were saying that the price of our staying out is opening up the NHS to private sector competition, it is worse terms and conditions - more flexibility and less red tape as the Tories would no doubt dub it - then I think the sensible and responsible thing for a Labour government to do is to say we are better off in the European Union.”

Asked whether, as a new member, the UK could be obliged to sign up to the single currency and the Schengen Area open border zone, Mr Smith said: “Potentially, but again we are getting into hypotheticals built on hypotheticals.

Mr Smith said he was “an internationalist and a collaborator and a co-operator” adding: “I want us to be part of the European Union”.

Many of Labour's former industrial heartlands in the North and Midlands voted enthusiastically for Brexit, but Mr Smith insisted that they could be persuaded to think again.

“I think people in those Northern cities don't want more reductions in their livelihoods, they want to see investment in their communities and Labour at that point - at some point in the future - would make a really strong case for us to stay within the EU.”

Some pro-EU commentators have argued that the logical point for a second referendum is towards the end of the two-year Article 50 withdrawal process, when the deal on offer becomes clear.

But Mr Smith argued triggering Article 50 would be the endgame, saying: “At which point it’s finished isn’t it? At which point we’re leaving.”

Asked if he would apply to rejoin if the UK had already left, he replied: “Depending on what it looks like, yes.”

Jeremy Corbyn remains the clear favourite to win the leadership contest when the result is announced on 24 September, but Mr Smith said: “You can't mistake mass rallies for a mass movement.”

Mr Corbyn “has got mass appeal to a small section of the electorate”, he said. Asked how confident of success he was on a scale of one to 10, Mr Smith said: “Ten, absolutely.”