25 July, 2017
But the SNP challenged Scottish Labour to explain the party's position on the single market after it said a "rift" had opened up between its leading figures.
The comments came after the Labour leader said over the weekend that his government would take Britain out of the tariff-free market because access was "inextricably linked" to membership of the bloc.
And he warned that staying in the EU's custom's union would be a "disaster" because Britain would be forced to aide by the EU's deals without having a say in brokering them.
Labour's 2017 election manifesto pledged to focus on "retaining the benefits of the single market and customs union" but was not explicit on whether Britain would actually remain inside the institutions.
He told the BBC Radio 4 Today Programme: 'I don't accept that that's [leaving the single market] necessary at all.
However, Mr Corbyn was accused of rowing back on his pledge to supposedly to cancel all student debt, arguing he had never made the promise. That doesn't mean we can't participate in the single market.
Labour MP Sharon Hodgson, who was first elected in 2005, has also faced criticism for failing to dispel claims that Corbyn would wipe out debt for thousands of recent graduates.
Just 24 hours earlier, Corbyn said Britain must leave the single market because it is "inextricably linked" to European Union membership - a claim that was refuted on his own backbenches. It was backed by 48 Labour rebels who defied the party whip, which had ordered them to abstain. Former frontbencher Chuka Umunna said some countries were outside the European Union but inside the single market, including Iceland, Lichtenstein and Norway.
"There is a block of those that now have a massive debt, and I'm looking at ways that we could reduce that, ameliorate that, lengthen the period of paying it off, or some other means of reducing that debt burden", the left-winger told the NME Magazine in June.
But in the latest bout of Labour infighting over the issue, Carwyn Jones - who leads Labour in Wales - said there is "no need" to leave the single market.
The customs union, which is separate, is an agreement between its members that they will charge the same external tariffs to countries outside it. We wouldn't control the rules but we'd have full and unfettered access.
Asked by Ipsos Mori researchers what should be the priority in negotiations, 49 percent preferred keeping access to the single market of 500 million European consumers.
Hatwell also said that Corbyn had it completely wrong on immigration.
"I don't have the simple answer for it yet - I don't think anybody would expect me to, because this election was called unexpectedly; we had two weeks to prepare all this - but I'm very well aware of that problem", Corbyn continued.
'We can't be a member because we'd have to be a member of the European Union to do it.
