Keir Starmer’s words will do little to placate hard Brexiteers (Image: Getty)
‘Brexit betrayal’ has become the latest accusation slapped against Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer. Ten years on from the landmark referendum on leaving the EU, the Labour leader continues to work on moving the UK closer to the European Union, rubbing hard Brexit backers up the wrong way.
But Keir’s plan for the UK’s closer ties to the EU were clear all along – he already admitted to it in his own words.
I recently found a copy of Beyond Brexit: The Left’s Agenda for the UK and the EU, published by the Fabian Society. I don’t think it was ever troubling Richard and Judy’s best sellers, as I was able to grab it for just £1 in a British Heart Foundation.
The Foreword is written by a certain Keir Starmer QC. Published in 2018, the chapter reveals Starmer’s intentions in a post-referendum Britain years before he became Prime Minister.
Here, he goes into detail about what he thinks caused the referendum in the first place, pointing the finger at low pay, immigration and a troubled NHS.
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Beyond Brexit’s foreword was written by Keir Starmer (Image: Alex Evans)
He writes: “When I campaigned for Remain in 2016, few people wanted to talk about the technicalities of the customs union or the single market. People wanted to talk about the problems with their local hospital, the difficulties they had buying a home, how they hadn’t had a pay rise for years, or how they were increasingly frustrated with an immigration system they felt simply didn’t work for their community.”
Doubters and anti-EU diehards will be given little comfort by his assessment of the reasons he gives, appearing to defend the EU. He adds: “They wanted change… it may well be that many of these problems have little, if anything, to do with our relationship with the EU. But they were exposed by the referendum, and they need to be addressed.”
The answer, Starmer writes is, ‘radical social’ change and a ‘close future partnership with the EU’. He continues: “Over the last two years, Labour has made the case for a close future partnership with the EU and a Brexit deal that is rooted in our core values and principles.”
Such a focus on moving closer to the EU has been evident in this government’s actions. Just this week, Labour spent £570million for a single year of a new deal to rejoin the European Union‘s Erasmus+ student exchange scheme in 2027. And later this year, Starmer is planning new laws to enable MPs to ‘fast track’ future UK standards in line with EU standards, which many will feel is a single market by any other name.
Reform leader Nigel Farage dubbed the proposed bill ‘a backdoor attempt to drag Britain back under EU control’, and Tory leader Kemi Badenoch accused ministers of being cowardly, adding: “If you want to be in the EU, come out and say we want to go back into the EU.”
With Donald Trump causing chaos with petrol and energy prices with his ill-fated war in Iran, while America continues to plunge deeper into crisis under his leadership, perhaps – whisper it – some may feel it is not the worst time to forge closer ties with European allies when America can no longer be counted upon.
But Starmer is unlikely to win over any Eurosceptics, especially when it’s clear this was his plan all along, and many will accuse him of blindly leading the UK back to the EU rather than spending that £570m on addressing the social and economic problems he says caused it.
A decade later, people still can’t buy a home, their local hospital is still failing, and their pay is still too low. These issues – even above future lawmaking and certainly above Erasmus – must remain the UK’s first priority or we’re doomed to spin in these circles forever.