Labour big beast Neil Kinnock has warned Keir Starmer he might struggle to meet a key election pledge without rejoining the EU’s Single Market.
The current party chief has vowed to give Britain the highest “sustained growth” in the G7 group of industrialised nations if he becomes Prime Minister.
But he has also ruled out taking the UK back into the EU’s Customs Union or Single Market.
Former Labour leader Lord Kinnock, 81, said: “I don’t think it’s a secret that I wouldn’t have done it quite like that.”
The peer said he worried “strategically about us being this far apart” from the EU, but added: “That’s Keir’s judgement and I respect it.”
He told the UK in a Changing Europe think tank: “I comprehend why he’s taken a very assertive line and I worry - with great loyalty - about how it will be possible to achieve the ambition, or progress towards fulfilling the ambition, of a sustained, high economic growth rate in the absence of our engagement in the Single Market.
“Put aside, if it’s possible, all the arguments about engagement in the European Union project and all it implies for pooled sovereignty, joint decision-making, being a really substantial power in the world - politically and economically - and just think in terms of the Single Market and the Customs Union.
“And it is very difficult to see - especially bearing in mind the OBR (Office for Budget Responsibility) forecasts in terms of growth impact of breaking away from the EU - difficult to see how you can attain and sustain growth rates of even 2.5%, 3%, 3.5%, which not all that long ago was trend growth, by excluding ourselves and continuing to do so from a big, prosperous market which was accessible.”
Lord Kinnock also rejected claims Mr Starmer lacked passion, telling guests: “His passion is cold - as cold as ice - but by God it’s effective.”
He insisted the party chief offered “rational, mature, patriotic leadership”.
Lord Kinnock also threw his weight behind a wealth tax.
The Labour leadership has said it has no plans for such a duty, but has refused to rule it out.
Also backing proportional representation in the voting system, Lord Kinnock added: “I think that the system of taxation which we employ, which makes people pay more on what they earn than what they own, needs examination because none of these things are actually fit for the giddy world of 2023 and beyond.”
The peer, who was a European Commissioner, added that he would not seek to offer Mr Starmer unwanted advice, saying: “I have got an abhorrence of backseat driving.”
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