'They are Remainers!' Labour's 'disrespect' torn apart by top Tory after sparking Brexit civil war

In his address at an event in Leeds, Mr Burnham distanced himself from comments made at last year's Labour Party conference he wanted the UK to "rejoin the EU in his lifetime".

Instead, Mr Burnham today declared he "respects the decision that was made at the referendum" and it would "undermine everything I've said about respecting democracy if we don't respect that vote".

Ex-Health Secretary Wes Streeting has also spoken out on Brexit over the weekend, arguing "leaving the European Union was a catastrophic mistake".

Reacting to the latest Brexit debate, Mr Griffith said Labour members have "always been Remainers".

He told GB News: "These people are Remainers have always been Remainers. They sought to take the UK back and reject the verdict of the British people in a referendum.

"The very last thing we need is to go back to the past. We don't want to go back and disrespect the British people. If Labour haven't learned that, they really haven't learned anything."

The Shadow Business Secretary argued that Europe "wouldn't do anything" for struggling British businesses.

He told GB News: "I was talking to businesses over the weekend, more this morning, going back into the low or no growth. Europe wouldn't do anything for some of the challenges we're facing.

"It wouldn't help toughen up our borders and take control of our laws on immigration, and it definitely wouldn't deal with the issue of the burgeoning national debt, the out of control welfare spending, in part fuelled by some of the rights that come down from Europe.

"And it wouldn't help our businesses compete and grow more in the world. Slashing red tape, lowering taxes, trying to get back on the side of business rather than, as this Government is doing, keep attacking them."

Taking aim at Labour, Mr Griffith argued the Government came into power on a "false prospectus".

He said: "This is a Government, admittedly due to some of the failures of preceding Governments, including the Conservatives, but it's a Government that came to power on a false prospectus.

"There's a false protected prospectus against their red lines on Europe, and we heard the same on taxes, no plans to put up tax on working people, and here we are, £70billion of tax increases later."

Mr Griffith argued the "one thing they've been consistent about is the trade unions".

He told GB News: "They haven't changed, the leopard has not changed its spots, and all we're seeing day by day is that unravelling and reverting to type at a moment when it's just not funny, because the world is in crisis.

"The UK is not growing, hasn't grown for far too long, we've got too much debt. We need politicians with the substance and honesty to deal with that. Some of them are in our party, and we need to start getting back to that and get back to proper leadership in this country."

Speaking out following the internal Labour Brexit debate, Sir Keir Starmer has said he hopes to "bring us closer to Europe" by taking a "really important leap forward".

He said: "We inherited a really bad Brexit deal that Boris Johnson had negotiated. It was a botched deal, it doesn't work for businesses, doesn't work for the country. What I've done in two years is to completely reset our relations with our EU partners to already have improved on that deal, which is what I did last year.

"This year we have another summit with the EU where we're going to take a really important leap forward in terms of the relationship, and bring us closer to Europe."

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