Labour leadership hopeful Jess Phillips has said she is not an “uber Remainer” and has no plans to apply for the UK to rejoin the EU.
But speaking on Sky’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday, Ms Phillips said it was not an “honest position” to close off future options or alliances.
She added: “I don’t think this is a conversation that’s even up for debate at the moment.
“There’s no plan to have some sort of campaign to rejoin the European Union.
“But any prime minister who wouldn’t look at the merits of every single alliance that our country could have for our safety, security, peace, and economic viability with a reasoned head on, anyone who closes off any option in the future, I just believe that that’s an honest position.”
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Ms Phillips said she did not hope that Brexit fails or causes a “calamity” in the country, but only that it would not cost people their jobs.
She added: “This isn’t about me hoping that this fails, I don’t hope that Boris Johnson causes calamity in the country.
“I hope that the people in my constituency, and across the country, don’t lose their jobs.
“This is about scrutinising what was promised to the people and making sure that the best thing can happen in our country.”
Ms Phillips said she was worried about how the Labour Conference vote to abolish private schools had made it seem to parents who choose to use them that the party thought they were “baddies”.
She said that private schools should be treated like businesses not charities and taxed “accordingly”.
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Ms Phillips added: “I worry about some of the messaging and how that hit home because I have a friend who has a daughter with autism who in a state-funded place at a private school and what she heard when we said that was ‘you’re a baddie and you shouldn’t be doing that’.
“Every parent’s responsibility is to their own child, a government’s responsibility is to every child.
“I think that private schools should be treated like businesses not like charities, they should be taxed accordingly.”
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