LABOUR E.E.C. VIEW Renegotiation of terms mooted

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32708, 10 September 1971, Page 11

LABOUR E.E.C. VIEW Renegotiation of terms mooted

(N.Z.P.A.‘Reuter—Copyright) BRADFORD, Sept 9. A future Labour Government should renegotiate the terms for Britain’S membership of the European Common Market even if the country had already joined, a former Minister said last night

sent some 10 million unionists. Their call was contained in ’• a resolution approved overwhelmingly by congress delegates. , They rejected entry on the i present terms negotiated by n the Conservative Goveme ment An outright call from Fthe Clerical and Administrative Workers’ Union for i- Britain to go in was decisively defeated.

Mr James Callaghan, Home Secretary in the last Labour Government, told a meeting in the northern England city of Bradford that the Prime Minister (Mr Edward Heath) should not think that the Market issue will close when Parliament votes on British entry next month. He said: “Both he and the Community should be aware that the issue will remain an open one until a General Election has decided it “Even if Mr Heath has his way about talking us in, when a Labour Government wins the confidence of the people then it should be its intention to renegotiate, on a government • to - government basis, those terms which at the time will have been found objectionable and harmful to the interests of the British people.” Mr Callaghan’s speech marks the start of an official opposition Labour Party campaign against the Conservative Government’s negotiated terms for entry to the Common Market The Labour Party is divided over the Market issue. A rival group of top Labour men, headed by the deputy oarty leader, Mr Roy Jenkins, have started a campaign supporting Market entry under the terms negotiated by the Conservatives. In Blackpool, Britain’s Trades Union Congress yesterday demanded a General Election before any decision was taken on British entry into the European Economic Community. Congress delegates repre-