Labour has pledged to make it easier for British pop stars such as Radiohead and Biffy Clyro to tour Europe.
UK music acts hoping to play on the Continent have complained about added bureaucracy triggered by the Brexit deal struck by Boris Johnson.
But, as the seventh anniversary of the 2016 referendum looms on Friday, Shadow International Trade Secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said Labour would tackle rules hampering British musicians touring the EU.
Speaking to the Mirror on the margins of the Trade Unlocked conference in Birmingham, he also said the party was “open” to a landmark free trade agreement with the US - a pact abandoned by the Tories.
Vowing to smooth the way for British acts to play to packed out arenas and stadiums in Europe, Mr Thomas-Symonds blamed “an ideological choice” made by Mr Johnson and his former chief Brexit negotiator Lord Frost for making it more difficult.
“It just seems to me completely illogical and self-defeating not to make it easier for musicians touring around Europe to be able to do so without the weight of bureaucracy,” he said.
“We have an extraordinarily vibrant, rich, cultural sector here in the UK - it’s one of our great avenues of soft power around the world.
“Why wouldn’t we want to see them travelling around Europe showing off their great talents?
“We should be making it as easy as possible for them to do so.”
Acts including Radiohead, Biffy Clyro and Ghostpoet have previously blasted the bureaucracy for touring in Europe and called on the Government to tear up red tape.
Mr Thomas-Symonds’ intervention comes 11 months after a cross-party group of MPs called on ministers to tackle the soaring costs of obtaining visas and transporting instruments that bands have encountered since the UK quit the EU.
Some orchestras face bills of £5,000 every time they play abroad, according to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Music.
It feared the industry faced a "crisis" requiring "urgent" action.
In 2021, more than 200 artists including Radiohead, Rick Astley and Little Mix launched the #LetTheMusicMove campaign.
They warned restrictions on touring Europe "threaten the future success of British music" and could result in the "collapse of the industry".
Labour has already pledged to overhaul the 2020 Trade and Cooperation Agreement the Government struck with Brussels, if it returns to power at the next general election.
But Mr Thomas-Symonds used a speech to set out fresh details over the changes it wants to make, as he vowed to “fix the holes in Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal”.
They include tighter links with the EU over research and science development, and easing trade barriers erected as a result of the 2016 referendum.
But Mr Thomas-Symonds said Labour would not seek to rejoin the EU Customs Union or Single Market when the agreement with Brussels is reviewed in 2025/26, as planned.
Instead, the party would offer Brussels the chance for greater security cooperation between the UK and EU as it tried to amend the pact.
“We recognise that we have to rebuild trust,” he told the Mirror.
“The first thing when we come into power that we will be saying is we want to negotiate a new UK/EU security pact.
“That isn’t something where we are simply giving away something for nothing.
“Instead, it is in our self-interest to do that because crime knows no borders.”
He also confirmed Labour was “open” to striking a free trade agreement (FTA) with the US.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was blasted earlier this month(JUN) during a trip to the White House for ditching a 2019 Tory election promise to negotiate a deal with Washington DC.
“We are open to deepening our relationship with the US and the wider that agreement could be, the better,” said Mr Thomas-Symonds.
“We are open to an FTA with the US.”
Addressing captains of industry, policy experts and leading politicians at the Birmingham conference, organised by internationalist campaign group Best for Britain, he insisted Keir Starmer led “a pro-business, pro-trade and pro-worker Labour Party”.
Vowing to boost British exports to “revitalise our role as a trading superpower”, he said Labour would “rebuild” the UK’s “international reputation - a reputation that this Government has, frankly, played fast and loose with”.
Speaking later at the same event, Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy was pessimistic about the chances of a deal with America.
“The Americans have made clear, certainly when I have been to Washington … that they aren’t interested in a free trade agreement,” he told the Mirror.
“That’s not specific to us here in the UK, it’s just a different direction - they are moving away from that neoliberal trade model more to a protectionist model.”
He added: “We can’t pursue it because the door isn’t open to pursuing it.”
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