My guest is Stella Creasy is MP for Waltonstow in north-east London since 2010,

and since February of last year she has been chair of the Labour Movement for Europe.

Welcome to the podcast, Stella.

Thank you, Paul.

We're going to kick off, Stella, although we're going to spend most of the podcasts talking about Labour's plans for its relations with the European Union going forward. But to kick off, what is the Labour Movement for Europe?

What is its role and why did you want to become its chair?

So the Labour Movement for Europe is the only affiliated body to the Labour Party concerned with our relationship with Europe and the European Union. That means it has a seat at the table because it's an affiliate organisation.

So in practical terms, in the formal structure of the Laid Party,

we have representatives at all levels who are able to be part of decision making,

whether it's on who should be our candidates,

part of the policy making process at the National Policy Forum, on who should be our candidates, part of the policy-making process

in the National Policy Forum, and also represented in our local Labour Party meetings in terms

of people who can speak up an advocate for policies about being supportive of our relationship

with Europe. I want to take that on because two reasons. One, I feel very strongly although

Brexit has happened. It's now proving to be a

terrible mistake for our country. And we therefore have to be clear that addressing the challenges

that it has created should be a priority for an incoming Labour government. And so we do a lot of

work about what those responses should be and how you do that and what the reality of what you can do is.

But also secondly, because we are a movement as well as a political organisation.

And working with other people to make that case is what the Labour Movement for Europe does.

We're a membership organisation. So anybody can become a member if they are a member of the Labour Party.

That to me is a really important part of the Labour tradition, which is that you achieve more

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