THE Labour Party at both Holyrood and Westminster has adopted the same Brexit stance as big business, left wing campaigners claim.
Jeremy Corbyn and Richard Leonard have been accused of promoting a similar position to the Confederation of Business Industry (CBI).
In a policy shift, Corbyn backed the UK being in a permanent customs union with the EU after Brexit, a position which Leonard supports.
However, the party has been urged to adopt a position on the EU that is rooted more in social justice.
Leading labour movement publication, the Scottish Left Review, said Corbyn's customs union policy is "essentially the same as that of the CBI".
In an editorial leader of a forthcoming publication, SLR says Labour should place more emphasis on workers' rights instead of the customs union.
SLR has close links with trade unions and former Scottish Labour chair Bob Thomson, a Corbyn and Leonard supporter, is a driving force in the publication.
Its editorial said: “On Brexit, Labour has been in a something of a mess. It says it accepts the result of the referendum, that Brexit means leaving the customs union and single market, and that it wants a ‘jobs first’ Brexit. Now, it is in favour of a policy of Britain being part of a customs union.
“There are a number of problems with ‘jobs first’ and these can be first be seen by this position being essentially the same as that of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). The CBI wants as little disruption as possible - and as much stability and continuity as possible in - to the conditions for creating profits – hence its approval of Labour’s support for a customs union. But it masks this in a populist language of jobs and investment – and shows no concern for the quality and conditions of those jobs."
The SLR also urged Leonard and Corbyn to back a referendum on the terms of Brexit.
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