Labour would scrap entire Tory plan for Brexit negotiations and start again

Labour says it will guarantee the rights of EU residents in the UK if it wins power and promises to push for a Brexit deal that will ensure more jobs and rights for workers.

The Shadow Brexit Secretary, Keir Starmer, has said that his party would propose a different kind of departure from the European Union than that proposed by the Conservatives.

In Labour's first major Brexit policy statement, the party would scrap Theresa May's White Paper plans to leave the single market and the customs union.

Starmer added Labour would guarantee the legal status of the three million EU nationals living in the UK, while also pushing to ensure that the rights of 1.2 million British workers in Europe are also protected.

The party would also drop the Tory's Great Repeal Bill that would shift EU law into UK domestic law, which Labour says is intended to weaken workers' rights, consumer rights and environmental protections.

Instead, Labour wants to introduce a new EU Rights and Protections Bill which would protect EU-derived laws.

"We will scrap the Government's Brexit White Paper and replace it with fresh negotiating priorities that reflect Labour values and our six tests ... And we will approach negotiations in a completely different way to a Tory Brexit: negotiating for the many, not the few," Starmer said.

"Where Theresa May wants to shut down scrutiny and challenge, Labour will welcome it. We will work with Parliament, not against it. Because on an issue of this importance the Government can't hide from the public or Parliament. A Labour approach to Brexit means legislating to guarantee that Parliament has a truly meaningful vote on the final Brexit deal," he added.

In response, Dominic Raab MP, Conservative member of the exiting the European Union select committee, said that Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn was a "weak leader of a divided party who couldn't get the right deal for the United Kingdom.

"We have a clear plan for the Brexit negotiations, and every vote for Theresa May will strengthen her hand in those negotiations to get a good deal for the UK," he said.

Meanwhile, the group Open Britain is urging voters in constituencies that backed staying in the EU to oust Brexit-supporting MPs.

The pro-EU organisation has drawn up an "attack list" of 20 mostly Tory-held seats where it seeks to get people to oppose MPs like Iain Duncan Smith, Theresa Villiers and Kate Hoey, The Guardian has reported.

Open Britain is working with the groups the European Movement and Britain for Europe in calling for people to exercise a tactical vote to limit the number of pro-Brexit MPs in Westminster.

Former Labour prime minister, Tony Blair, wrote in the Guardian that the party he once led had to do more than just run a conventional campaign on cuts and the NHS.

"Ignoring the Brexit issue or trying to downplay it as one issue out of many just won't work ... we have to expose the fact that the mandate the Tories are asking for is not an open negotiation in the interests of the country but for a Brexit at any cost driven by the ideology of the right of the Tory party," he wrote.

The latest polls put the Tories on track for a Commons majority of up to 150 seats, including 12 seats in Scotland, and the most seats in Wales for the first time since the 1950s.