ANY QUOTES USED MUST BE ATTRIBUTED TO SUNDAY WITH NIALL PATERSON, SKY NEWS

NIALL PATERSON: Jeremy Corbyn’s speech isn’t necessarily going to be well received by everyone in his party, including I suspect my next guest, Kate Hoey, a very warm welcome to you this Sunday morning. What do you think Jeremy Corbyn is going to announce tomorrow?

KATE HOEY: Well I think Jeremy has had a very difficult job because he is trying to keep the party together and, more importantly, our supporters all around the country so I think it may not be as seismic as some people are suggesting but I worry that he is being pressurised by a lot of people, for example the 80-odd who have signed that letter today about staying even in the single market and those are mostly people, if you look through it, who really did not want Jeremy to be leader and are part of the last remnants of the whole kind of Blairite project, so I’d be surprised if it shifts too far especially as we would then be going into the next election saying that we don’t want to have our own trade policy and I think that’s very important.

NP: Is that for you the key thing that’s wrong with the customs union?

KATE HOEY: Yes, I don’t understand how we can have a customs union that would not, that would still give us the freedom to be able to make our own trade deals and when you think how long it’s taken the EU to get trade deals and they still haven’t got them with India, with China and America and all of those, yet we would be saying we’re kind of half in, half out and it is that growing group of people now who know that we’re leaving, hate the fact that we’re leaving and want to try and find a way where we can be leaving but in name only and staying in all these other little bits. It still give the EU control which is what people wanted, they wanted to take back control, very simple.

NP: The response of Kier Starmer and others of course to that point is to regularly brandish data around that shows for the next few years at least the bulk of our trade will be with the European Union so why not prioritise that over an ideological commitment to removing oneself from a supranational organisation?

KATE HOEY: Except if we are looking long term, you know our trade is going down with the European Union every year and of course even the European Commission have said that 90% of the growth world-wide in trade will be outside the EU so this is a real opportunity I think for us to show that as a great country with a language that unites us throughout the world, with our justice system that countries like, that we can actually make a huge, huge benefit of leaving but if we kind of half leave, half in, half out, we’re not going to have that benefit and I think Jeremy understands that because I think what Jeremy does understand and John McDonnell, is that the way we treat developing countries, the trade policies that discriminate against them to protect Spanish oranges or whatever, I don't think people want to see that happen. I think they’ve accepted – many people were very disappointed and in my own constituency many people were very, very disappointed we voted to remain (sic) but if we are going to do we have to do it properly and the EU will not let, I don't think the EU will want to have that kind of…

NP: Still there exists the possibility that after Jeremy Corbyn’s speech tomorrow, yours will be the minority position, the majority in the House for a softer Brexit, closer alignment and so on.

KATE HOEY: I’ve never made any bones about we’re in the minority within the parliamentary Labour party but you know, I was up in the north just a week ago and people …

NP: A minority even in the House actually.

KATE HOEY: Well in Parliament … I don't know you see, because if it comes to the crunch will people really want to defeat their own government on the issue that can actually be said by some people to be going against what people have voted for and I haven’t seen any sign when I’ve been around of people really changing their mind. I don't think there’s many, many people who voted Leave who now say well, oh well we’ve changed our mind because we’ve now read these economic forecasts that were also around before the referendum.

NP: Do you ever feel then that you’re in the right party? You have been censured by your CLP, not on Brexit this time of course but do you ever think you might be happier on the other side of the chamber sitting next to people …?

KATE HOEY: Absolutely not. I’ve been a member of the Labour party for years and years and years, I’ve been an MP for 29 years, I’ve more or less stayed the same in my politics and I’ve seen people go way past me to the right and way past me to the left. I’m a kind of common sense politician I think and I genuinely believe this country will be better off leaving and I think also there’s an extremely good left wing argument for leaving the European Union. I think it is an organisation that does not actually care about democracy so I’m very comfortable. You get used to being censured.

NP: Indeed but the reason the CLP condemned you this time of course was your view of the Good Friday Agreement, why don’t you think it’s sustainable?

KATE HOEY: Well no, I mean I really think that the two things are completely different and Ruth Dudley Edwards wrote a brilliant article about the Good Friday Agreement and some of us agreed with that but it’s nothing to do with Brexit, it really hasn’t anything to do with Brexit and I find it quite shocking that Tony Blair is coming out and almost implying that if we don’t stay in the customs union and we don’t stay in the single market, that somehow the men of violence will be back. This is so, so irresponsible and people like David Trimble who really did do the work to get the Belfast Agreement actually are saying quite clearly that they negotiated a Good Friday Agreement which had nothing to do with economics, which was about peace, constitutional issues and all I was saying really was, if we go into direct rule – which it looks like we will – then that’s an opportunity to look at whether the mandatory coalition can work long term.

NP: But there isn’t an easy solution to this border of course.

KATE HOEY: Well there are practical technological model solutions and the Republic of Ireland government should really be putting their mind to that and working with us rather than looking like they are there to protect the EU because the EU is not interested in actually helping to make sure that we get a good deal.

NP: Kate Hoey, many thanks for being with us.

KATE HOEY: Thank you.