{"id":121636,"date":"2025-05-22T04:42:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T04:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/121636\/"},"modified":"2025-05-22T04:42:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T04:42:08","slug":"what-brexit-betrayal-brit-rejoiners-unimpressed-by-starmers-reset","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/121636\/","title":{"rendered":"What Brexit betrayal? Brit rejoiners unimpressed by Starmer\u2019s reset"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nLONDON \u2013 The UK\u2019s \u2018reset\u2019 deal with the EU brought cries of \u201cbetrayal\u201d from opponents \u2013 but that doesn\u2019t mean those still campaigning for Brexit to be reversed were jubilant.<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\nReaction from Britain\u2019s Brexiteer right \u2013 and its press<\/a> \u2013 was predictable. But less obvious was how the deal<\/a> would go over with those who regret leaving the EU \u2013 who, per YouGov polling released<\/a> on Tuesday, now make up 56% of Brits, compared to 32% who think the right call was made.\n<\/p>\n

\nMany, including just about every<\/a> business group except fishermen, were broadly pleased at the prospect of reduced barriers after Monday’s agreements. But at the gates of Downing Steet that afternoon, where Prime Minister Keir Starmer lives and works, a small group of demonstrators was underwhelmed.\n<\/p>\n

\nThey were not replete in British red-white-and-blue \u2013 but in blue t-shirts and berets emblazoned with the 12 golden stars of the EU flag.\n<\/p>\n

\nThey were Grassroots for Europe, a campaign group whose mission, per their website<\/a>, is to facilitate rejoining the EU \u201cas soon as possible\u201d. They had come to London to, as Colin Gordon put it, \u201cshow that the British public are fed up to the back teeth with Brexit.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\nThe deal, Starmer repeated<\/a>, kept the UK\u2019s well-known Brexit red lines intact: no return to the single market, no customs union, and no freedom of movement\n<\/p>\n

\nSo were they disappointed? \u201cIt\u2019s a start,\u201d Gordon said. But the deal would make only \u201cmarginal\u201d difference on the economy, which he saw as Brexit\u2019s main cost.\n<\/p>\n

\nSteve Rouse, founder of pro-EU troupe Dance Europa \u2013 whom even Brexit architect Nigel Farage has praised<\/a> for their high-octane street performances \u2013 felt similarly, though added Starmer had shown \u201csome courage\u201d in his reset. He hoped Britain would eventually \u201cchoose joy and friendship over resentment and division.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/p>\n

Make Brexit work?<\/strong>
\nBoris Johnson won a 2019 election landslide on a campaign to \u201cGet Brexit Done\u201d. Starmer initially backed a controversial second referendum, but after assuming the Labour leadership in 2020 vowed to \u201cmake Brexit work<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nMonday\u2019s reset deal saw some parts of Johnson\u2019s Brexit overwritten. But unlike the tabloids, the demonstrators weren\u2019t convinced Starmer would ever Get Brexit Undone.\n<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIf it’s all \u2018make Brexit work\u2019 and the British public lose interest [in rejoining], then we’ll be left in a grey no man’s land, which would be silly,\u201d Rouse said.\n<\/p>\n

\nNick Harvey, an ex-Liberal Democrat MP who served in David Cameron\u2019s coalition government alongside many eventual Brexiteers, found the \u2018make Brexit work\u2019 mantra \u201cinherently flawed\u201d.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe plans to converge on food<\/a> and energy<\/a> were \u201creally worthwhile\u201d said Harvey, who is now CEO of European Movement UK, the British branch of the well-known federalist pressure group. But \u201cit was a pity that so much was just agreement in principle, rather than detailed agreement.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIt is a tiny step towards eventual rejoining,\u201d he added. Like the demonstrators, reversing Brexit is part of European Movement UK\u2019s mission, per their website<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\nA nearly two-hour debate on the deal in parliament on Tuesday saw the word \u2018rejoin\u2019 mentioned just three times, however \u2013 despite Harvey\u2019s estimate that \u201croughly 85%\u201d of MPs voted remain. \u201cThere would be parliamentary support for going much further than the deal, but it will take time,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n

\nAnother highly pro-EU constituency is British youth<\/a> \u2013 who, after Monday\u2019s deal, may soon see the revival of Erasmus exchanges to the continent. Most Britons under 30 were too young to vote in 2016, while most over 65s voted to leave.\n<\/p>\n

\n\u201cYoung Brits deserve the same chances enjoyed by most of their peers across the continent,\u201d Alfred Quantril, president of European Movement UK\u2019s youth wing, told Sky News.\n<\/p>\n

\nBut the generational divide does not always hold. Magdalena Williams, a retired civil servant and rejoin activist who was with the Downing Street demonstration, said she was happy with the deal because, \u201cto tell you the truth, I didn’t expect an awful lot.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n\u201cBut, of course, it’s never enough for me because time is flying.\u00a0I am not getting younger.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n(aw)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON \u2013 The UK\u2019s \u2018reset\u2019 deal with the EU brought cries of \u201cbetrayal\u201d from opponents \u2013 but that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121637,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-121636","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114549656437194998","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}