'Brexit has worked!' Labour warned NOT to submit Britain to European Union's 'economic slavery'

Countering the narrative argued by Labour the UK's exit deal has done considerable damage to the economy, the former Conservative MEP argued "we've got the best trade deal the EU has ever done" – a reference to Britain's zero-tariff arrangement with Brussels.

As the tenth anniversary of the Brexit referendum approaches, Britain's relationship with Europe has resurfaced as a deeply unpopular Sir Keir Starmer faces leadership challenges from both the left and right wings of the Labour Party.

A contradiction has opened between Labour's largely Remainer membership – whose votes the candidates need to become leader – and the party's Brexit-supporting electorate.

This weekend, former Health Secretary Wes Streeting declared "leaving the EU was a catastrophic mistake," thus drawing the lines by which the leadership contest will be fought. His rival, Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, intends to fight the Makerfield by-election in his quest to return to Westminster.

The constituency voted 65 per cent for Leave, meaning the former MP walks a tight line between wooing Leave voters and keeping Labour members onside.

"Brexit is back at the front of British politics, which is both deeply depressing and highly amusing," Lord Frost told the Brexit Unleashed conference, adding: "Labour are in control and there is very little we can do to stop them."

Lord Frost argued "the Labour negotiators didn't really understand what they were doing with the EU reset deal", saying the Prime Minister's reset deals have taken Labour "well beyond their manifesto position", where terms such as "dynamic alignment" shield what is in effect a transfer of power back to Brussels: "All they can do is take what the EU has to offer," he said. "We're now at the next stage of that policy: Rejoin".

Lord Frost believes both Mr Burnham andMr Streeting want to see the UK rejoin the EU, although the Makerfield by-election means there must be regard for public opinion "at least for now".

"There is no legitimate way to blame Brexit for Britain's current economic malaise", Lord Frost asserted, arguing the UK's economic growth rate has not suffered in comparison to the other major European economies.

"We have done free trade agreements; we are doing innovation in food and agriculture; and this government, the Labour Government, has done some of this as well. They've done trade deals and reduced tariffs, and they say they want to make Britain a leading AI centre.

"They don't really hate Brexit freedoms; they just hate who won them."

Lord Frost called for a future Government to "reverse the reset" and ditch the Windsor Framework, which has seen Northern Ireland remain in the EU's Single Market and trade barriers erected with the rest of the UK.

He said: "Brexit was a means to an end – making this country an independent, successful, prosperous democracy. We need to underline we don't want to be permanently in confrontation with the EU; we just don't see why we need to be giving our powers to Brussels all the time."

In a reminder to the Government of the larger consequences of reversing the result of the referendum, Conservative MP David Jones told the conference: "The desire of a free people to govern itself should never be dismissed as ignorance or nostalgia... Brexit itself was a profoundly British democratic revolution: constitutional rather than ideological, evolutionary rather than violent."

On the collapse of Labour and the Tories, Mr Jones remarked: "And I suspect that what we are witnessing now is not the end of that process, but its continuation."

Last week, Sir Keir declared he wanted to see the UK back "at the heart of Europe".

The PM hinted an upcoming EU-UK summit, expected to take place in early July, would result in even closer cooperation between the two.

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