Time to admit defeat on Freedom of Movement

With Jeremy Corbyn having called for the Labour Party to reject full membership of the Single Market, and with the Brexit negotiations bogged down over the border with Ireland, now would be a good time to rethink Theresa May's red lines, especially Freedom of Movement. 

Although Freedom of Movement is deeply disliked by some, that dislike is certainly not universal across the entire Leave movement. For some who voted leave, especially Liberal Leavers, it just isn’t an issue at all. 

There would, therefore, be widespread support for the compromise of staying in the Single Market, especially as a medium term transition measure. Perhaps the UK should commit to stay within the Single Market for a period of 10 years.

This would have a number of benefits:

• it ought to resolve the border issue with the Republic of Ireland;
• it would help to heal the divide between leavers and remainers; admittedly, not many would be happy exactly, but at least both sides would see that the other was equally unhappy;
• it provide an opportunity to make a start on trade deals with the rest of the world, even if those deals wouldn’t be as comprehensive as they would if the UK had the freedom to control its own regulations;
• it would allow time to make other geopolitical allies: in particular, the forging of closer relations with other CANZUK countries (CANZUK freedom of movement really should be a priority once a Brexit deal has been resolved);
• it would reduce the scope of a potential future Corbynite government to wreck the economy;
• it would simplify everything enormously, providing the Government with bandwidth to devote to other things;
• the economy would likely take off, perhaps boom even, providing the Government with additional income it could devote to sorting out the deficit and address other pressing concerns, such as housing.

In the longer term, other EU countries are also expressing concern with Freedom of Movement. It is not inconceivable that there might be reforms in the future.

Now, I am no fan of the Single Market. I believe that it benefits large corporate organisations at the expense of smaller ones, and thus stifles innovation. Leaving the Single Market comes at considerable economic cost, however. There would be benefits in the long term, but it would take a very long time to recover from the losses of withdrawal. And that is without taking the risks of the enormous economic damage that would ensue from a Corbynite government.

But if even I can see the advantages of staying within the Single Market, why can't the Government?