Jeremy Corbyn defuses one Brexit battle – and sows the seeds for another

The Labour leader played down his comments on free movement. But there's more than one kind of hard Brexit.

On Monday evening, journalists were briefed about a major Brexit speech by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. Labour, he was to say, was “not wedded” to free movement. Then he added that the UK could not afford to “lose full access to the European markets”.

By the morning, though, Corbyn was trying to dampen down the excitement. He was, he stressed, not saying immigration controls were more important than access to European markets.