Emily Thornberry has played down tensions within Labour over Britain's Brexit negotiations describing an intervention by former party leader Lord Kinnock as a "technical disagreement".

The shadow foreign secretary said remaining in the EEA (European Economic Area) was not appropriate for Britain because "Britain is too large an economy and it's too complex".

She told BBC Five Live's Pienaar's Politics the Government should be negotiating a "British-style deal" with the EU, adding: "We simply can't cram our economy into the structure that is the EEA."

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Ms Thornberry said: "I just think this is a technical disagreement.

"In the end we want very much the same things, we want to be able to have the full benefits of being in the single market and the customs union and it's a question of being able to negotiate something that works for us, so we can't have an off the peg agreement because it's just not going to fit us."

Her comments came after Lord Kinnock said that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will commit a "serious evasion of duty" if he does not change course and back the UK retaining key aspects of the single market after Brexit.

The peer signalled that Labour MPs should defy Mr Corbyn if he repeats instructions to abstain in parliamentary votes on Britain staying in the EEA.

Lord Kinnock was one of 83 Labour peers who rebelled against Mr Corbyn and backed an amendment to Brexit legislation in the upper house for the UK to remain in the EEA, a grouping which allows for the free movement of persons, goods, services and capital within the European single market.

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In a thinly-veiled swipe at Mr Corbyn, Lord Kinnock said objections to EEA membership were based on "infantile leftist illusion".

The ex-Labour leader said if Mr Corbyn did not alter his stance he would condemn working people that Labour was supposed to support to the "rockslide" of hard Brexit.

Asked if Labour MPs would be ordered to abstain on the issue of staying in the EEA, with the pro-EEA amendment to the EU (Withdrawal) Bill set to come back to the Commons, Ms Thornberry said there was a need to focus on the customs union vote.

She said: "The vote on the customs union is where we're going to see real differences.

"Labour is united that we should be in a customs union and that's been our policy for some time now, we do think that nothing else frankly works, the rest of it is all pie in the sky nonsense."

The Government she said was "running out of time" and "can't even agree amongst themselves" what they want as an alternative to being in a customs union.

She said: "Now why don't they just accept the inevitable, we need to be in a customs union and stop faffing around."

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Ms Thornberry said had always been Labour's "guiding light" in approaching Brexit.

"We think that we need to negotiate how we have as close a possible relationship with the EU on trade for the sake of jobs," she said.