They have, however, voted more consistently for leaving with a deal than the Conservatives.
Agreed. Which is why their position has alternately been "leave with a deal" or stay.
Their previous policy was to negotiate some kind of Customs Union deal, which would be pointless. Leaving in name only. The idea deal is some kind of Canada + deal, which the EU are unlikely to offer us. As far as I am aware Labour have never pursued anything other than 'a' customs union but not the customs union. Now they claim the EU wont agree to anything other than Mays deal so they would probably rehash most of that but then some of them would campaign against it. Corbyn is a leaver, most of their seats are leave areas, Corbyn needs to leave to implement some of his policies not allowed under EU state aid. The party membership are largely pro EU as are most of the MPs. Quite frankly their policy is utterly baffling, misleading and dishonest. The only consistent party are the Lib Dems.
I doubt that Norway and Switserland see themselfs as 'vassal states'.
Do you really believe that the UK could exist without any obligation to other countries (including the EU) ? After all, when a British company wants to sell its products in the EU, these products have to be of the same standards as required by the EU. In other words: a British-build car must be for right-hand drive if you want to sell it in Germany or France and the UK will have no say in this. Does this make the UK a vassal state?
The problem is that when the UK stays out of the customs union, these cars will be much more expensive in the EU. Is that the better option?
Switzerland is in the Single Market but not customs union, Norway is in the Single Market and EEA but not customs union. I think the Single Market/EEA model does give some flexibility on trade, more frictionless than a customs union. Obviously the UK is much larger than either of these countries.
Labour are proposing a customs union, Turkey has a customs union with the EU and trade is far from frictionless there. A customs union is not actually a good solution at all, we abide by rules we have no say over. I think there is much confusion over what a customs union actually is, its is about lack of customs checks on good not on trade/tariffs. One of the reasons Labour policy is so unfathomable is they don't actually understand what they are on about even.
No, I do not think the UK should be without obligation to other countries. I strongly believe being in the EU is the correct thing. My point is that being in a Customs Union is actually a less autonomous situation than we are in now, which seems dumb. Given the democratic vote we had we should try to find a solution that wont be too damaging, but also it must have some purpose. Just saying we are going to have Brexit but actually have even less power over our own destiny is dumb, in that case in the long term a hard Brexit may prove to be more beneficial to the nation even given the large amount of short term pain it would cause.