{"id":31200,"date":"2025-04-18T21:21:10","date_gmt":"2025-04-18T21:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/31200\/"},"modified":"2025-04-18T21:21:10","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T21:21:10","slug":"labours-brexit-betrayal-is-here-and-its-worse-than-you-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/31200\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour’s Brexit betrayal is here – and it’s worse than you think"},"content":{"rendered":"

So here we are. Labour\u2019s mask has slipped.<\/p>\n

Sir Keir Starmer has all but confirmed what many of us knew was coming: a slow, deliberate slide back into Brussels\u2019 grip: the betrayal of Brexit in plain sight.<\/p>\n

Reports this week suggest Labour is preparing to align Britain with the EU\u2019s food and veterinary standards, while accepting the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice over major parts of our economy.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t some harmless technocratic fix. It is the quiet reversal of Brexit: rules without representation, control handed back to Brussels, and democratic accountability not even a passing thought.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be fair. There were always respectable arguments on both sides of the Brexit debate. Stay in and follow the rules. Or leave and make your own.<\/p>\n

But this? Leave \u2014 and voluntarily take the rules? That is strategic incoherence of the highest order.<\/p>\n

And worse still, it\u2019s not just our democratic sovereignty that\u2019s at stake. It\u2019s our entire trading future.<\/p>\n

\"Robert<\/p>\n

Labour’s Brexit betrayal is here – and it’s worse than you think – Robert Courts KC<\/p>\n

GB News\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t think that this is just some little sideshow that only affects one industry. It\u2019s the thin end of the wedge. The hook that will be used through European Court decisions to bring wider areas of the economy back under Brussels\u2019 purview and, once that is done, the Re-joiners will be back for more: \u201clook, that wasn\u2019t so hard, was it? Now let\u2019s dynamically align with further areas\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

But worse. Labour\u2019s EU reset now risks shutting Britain out of a trade deal with Washington. By signing up to Brussels\u2019 food rules, we would be giving away our ability to set our rules. This makes it far more difficult to do free trade arrangements with countries that we don\u2019t have them with, and particularly where the far greater prize lies, most notably America \u2013 our single greatest trading partner. Right now, this is the single biggest benefit of being out of the EU. In tariff terms, we have already seen the benefits.<\/p>\n

This is the most basic point of all: you can\u2019t align with Brussels and expect to deal freely with the rest of the world. You don\u2019t have the power to do so.<\/p>\n

Labour say this will \u201cmake trade easier.\u201d That\u2019s debateable \u2013 and there are other, better ways of doing that anyway. But even if that were right – at what cost? This is dynamic alignment: you agree that when they change their rules, you meekly change yours to match them, with no say or veto. It\u2019s the EU\u2019s way or no way.<\/p>\n

The key to understanding this is to realise that the EU isn\u2019t really a trading bloc. Not really. It\u2019s a regulatory empire. And it doesn\u2019t want mutual recognition \u2014 where sovereign nations agree to trust each other\u2019s rules. It wants to export its regulatory orbit over as much of the World as possible. Indeed, the EU takes pride in the World adopting Brussels\u2019 standards. One rulebook, written in Brussels, applied everywhere \u2014 with no British say, and no British veto.<\/p>\n

So Labour\u2019s plan locks us into a declining economic bloc, just as the rest of the world races ahead.<\/p>\n

Trump is turning up tariffs. China is building rival systems. Supply chains are shifting fast. Britain should be nimble, sovereign and self-confident, not tied to the declining bloc that is yesterday\u2019s EU. The whole point of Brexit was regulatory freedom \u2014 to become agile, competitive, globally engaged. Singapore-on-Thames, not Brussels-on-Sea. At precisely the moment that global trade tensions mean we need to be making full advantage of our regulatory and economic freedom, the Government is trying to give it away.<\/p>\n

Labour claim this is \u201cpragmatic\u201d. It\u2019s not. It\u2019s just giving up.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not just sovereignty they\u2019re trading away. It\u2019s opportunity. This is a move that will stifle innovation. For example, it would also mean a ban on UK gene-editing agri-tech, which has massive potential to increase crop yields and reduce pesticide use.<\/p>\n

\"Farmers<\/p>\n

Labour must back home-grown innovation and cut domestic red tape to make UK agriculture globally competitive. <\/p>\n

Getty Images<\/p>\n

Do you want to help British farmers? Good. So do I, passionately. So for a start, scrap inheritance tax on family farms \u2013 the hated family farm tax. Then reverse the shattering blow that the closure of the sustainable farming initiative represents, after years of painstaking work to get it in the right place. Then back home-grown innovation. Cut domestic red tape to make UK agriculture globally competitive. Above all, understand the countryside, and those who work and live there.<\/p>\n

But don\u2019t tell farmers they\u2019ll be better off ruled by Brussels bureaucrats who neither know nor care how British farming works. Why should they? It\u2019s not their job to look after people who aren\u2019t part of their bloc! It\u2019s our own Government\u2019s!<\/p>\n

Make no mistake. The next time anyone goes and asks for a rule change in these sectors, the answer will be \u201cI\u2019m really sorry, we gave that power away. It is what it is.\u201dStarmer\u2019s idea of a \u201creset\u201d isn\u2019t compromise or co-operation \u2013 everyone\u2019s in favour of that – it\u2019s capitulation. We will be stuck with rules we can\u2019t change. Courts we can\u2019t legislate for. Deals we can\u2019t strike.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not Brexit. That\u2019s not sovereignty. And it\u2019s certainly not what 17.4 million people voted for.<\/p>\n

Labour may think they can sneak this through while the public isn\u2019t looking. But people understand what\u2019s at stake. The right to make our own rules. To sign our own deals. To chart our own future. To hold our own elected Government to account.<\/p>\n

Brexit meant taking back control of, above all, our laws. It was right then, and it is right now. Starmer\u2019s plan gives it all away.<\/p>\n

And once it\u2019s all gone – good luck getting it back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"So here we are. Labour\u2019s mask has slipped. Sir Keir Starmer has all but confirmed what many of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,8274,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-31200","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-membership","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114361066162915174","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31200","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=31200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}