{"id":21850,"date":"2026-04-25T12:58:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T12:58:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/21850\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T12:58:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T12:58:14","slug":"brexit-hating-blob-accused-of-plotting-return-to-eu-with-pm-in-crisis-politics-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/21850\/","title":{"rendered":"Brexit-hating blob accused of plotting return to EU with PM in crisis | Politics | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Keir<\/p>\n

Keir Starmer will unveil legislation to ease trade with the EU which alarmed Brexiteers (Image: Phil Lewis\/SOPA Images\/REX\/Shutterstock)<\/p>\n

Brexiteers have sounded the alarm that a pro-EU \u201cblob\u201d at the heart of the British establishment is exploiting<\/a> Sir Keir Starmer\u2019s weakness to push<\/a> for the United Kingdom to rejoin the European Union<\/a>. The warning<\/a> comes in the wake of Philip Rycroft \u2013 formerly the top civil servant at the Department for Exiting the European Union \u2013 saying it is \u201ctime to talk about rejoining\u201d.<\/p>\n

The PM is under pressure from within Labour and from rival parties to put Britain back in Brussel\u2019s orbit. Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan has called for Labour to go into the next election with a promise to rejoin the EU. Green party leader Zack Polanski has said he is \u201cvery much\u201d in favour of rejoining the EU and the SNP<\/a> and Plaid Cymru want to secure independence for Scotland and Wales, respectively, within the bloc.<\/p>\n

Sir Keir will try to reboot his premiership next month with a King\u2019s Speech which is expected to include legislation to \u201calign\u201d UK law in areas including animal health with Brussels\u2019s regulations as part of his EU \u201creset\u201d.<\/p>\n

Former Chief Brexit<\/a> Negotiator Lord Frost told the Express: \u201cNow that Starmer’s own position is under threat, the pro-EU forces in Labour see the opportunity and are combining with a bureaucratic establishment that never wanted to leave the EU in the first place. It’s vital that those who stand by the 2016 referendum result get ready to resist the Rejoin direction of travel, beginning with parliamentary opposition to the new Alignment with the EU Bill lined up in the King’s Speech.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former Labour minister Baroness Hoey said: \u201cEvery time I hear someone like Rycroft call for us to rejoin it confirms my belief that it was because of senior civil servants like him that we wasted the opportunities presented by leaving\u201d.<\/p>\n

Turning her fire on Sir Keir, who served as Jeremy Corbyn\u2019s Shadow Brexit Secretary, she said: \u201cStarmer, the most passionate EU supporter, may be on the way out but the blob inside Whitehall are desperate to rejoin in so they can simply be told what to do again by Brussels. They have no confidence in our country but they underestimate just how out of touch they are with the feelings of those they look down on from their cosy establishment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Labour\u2019s manifesto ruled out returning to the \u201csingle market, the customs union, or freedom of movement\u201d but senior Labour figures, including the Chancellor, now regularly blame Brexit for Britain\u2019s economic woes and support close alignment with the EU.<\/p>\n

Shadow Foreign Secretary Dame Priti Patel warned that Sir Keir\u2019s plans would result in the \u201cworst of both worlds for hard-pressed British taxpayers\u201d, saying Labour wants to \u201cmake Britain a rule-taker once again which is not In our national interest\u201d.<\/p>\n

Read more: ‘Brexit fightback’ begins as veterans reunite to stop Keir Starmer’s EU ‘reset’ <\/a><\/p>\n

Read more: Brexit is under attack from Labour and Brussels won’t believe its luck <\/a><\/p>\n

\"Baroness<\/p>\n

Former Labour minister Baroness Hoey, a veteran Brexiteer (Image: Adam Gerrard \/ Daily Express)<\/p>\n

Naomi Smith of the pro-EU campaign group Best for Britain said on Friday that \u201clittle appetite exists for the halfway houses of a customs union or single market entry, relative to the resounding and deeply felt support for EU membership.\u201d Fabian Picardo, Gibraltar\u2019s chief minister, has said he hopes to \u201csee the UK rejoin the EU\u201d.<\/p>\n

Former Brexit minister David Jones commented: \u201cAs the Prime Minister\u2019s authority ebbs away, it is increasingly clear that familiar establishment voices are seeking to overturn the Brexit vote by stealth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Jones insisted there is \u201cno mandate for rejoining\u201d and warned that \u201calignment at this stage would not be pragmatism, it would be a shameful retreat\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mark Francois, the chairman of the Conservative European Research Group, said: \u201cThe British establishment is still smarting over losing the EU referendum in 2016 but now they no longer even bother to hide it. They are hoping to persuade a beleaguered Labour Government that rejoining the EU would somehow be their salvation \u2013 which it would not. Labour voters in the Red Wall are very unlikely to want to be somehow shoehorned back into the EU.\u201d<\/p>\n

Veteran Brexiteer Dame Theresa Villiers described Sir Keir as a \u201cfloundering PM trying to blame Brexit for Labour economic failure\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cIt would be a disaster to wind the clock back and go back to those endless rows over our relationship with the EU. British made its choice in the referendum and that should be respected.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Penny<\/p>\n

Former Defence Secretary Dame Penny Mordaunt (Image: Thomas Krych\/ZUMA Press Wire\/REX\/Shutterstock)<\/p>\n

John Longworth, the former director-general of the British Chambers of Commerce who co-chaired the Leave Means Leave campaign, insisted Brexit has \u201cbeen beneficial for the UK\u201d but claimed a \u201cweak PM and desperate Chancellor have given the pro-EU blob the opportunity to raise their ugly head and produce fictional reasons to seek to rejoin, a move which would spell the end of Britain as an independent nation and result in major damage for business and consumers\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThey have done this in their own vested interests and as a scapegoat for their failings. The next Government must redouble its efforts to diverge, innovate and create real economic growth rather than shackle the country to a slow growth, sinking ship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former Defence Secretary Dame Penny Mordaunt<\/a> said: \u201cI\u2019ve always said the real heroes of Brexit were those who voted remain and accepted the democratic result. I think the public will take a dim view of both people trying to rerun the referendum and those trying to reverse it by stealth, which would be the worse outcome of all \u2013 none of gains of leaving and none of the benefits of membership. That of course is Prime Ministers position.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leading Thatcherite Lord Redwood warned that \u201cimporting more EU laws, taxes and products will slow growth, undermine trade deals with the rest of the world and make us rule-takers again\u201d.<\/p>\n

A Labour source said: “Don\u2019t worry. Rejoin isn\u2019t on the cards for the Labour Government. We are seeking to make Brexit work – not reverse it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keir Starmer will unveil legislation to ease trade with the EU which alarmed Brexiteers (Image: Phil Lewis\/SOPA Images\/REX\/Shutterstock)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21851,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[157,1300,13,9977,9975,9974,9976,1469,94,31,4365,5247],"class_list":{"0":"post-21850","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-brexit-news","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-british-establishment","12":"tag-david-frost","13":"tag-eu-referendum","14":"tag-eu-rejoining","15":"tag-european-union","16":"tag-keir-starmer","17":"tag-labour-party","18":"tag-penny-mordaunt","19":"tag-priti-patel"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116465467618261994","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}