{"id":611850,"date":"2025-12-04T14:54:27","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T14:54:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/611850\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T14:54:27","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T14:54:27","slug":"starmer-flirts-with-eu-as-economic-growth-flatlines-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/611850\/","title":{"rendered":"Starmer flirts with EU as economic growth flatlines \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The B-word that in recent years dared not breathe its name is returning to Westminster. Brexit<\/a> is back in British<\/a> politics after a bit of a hiatus.<\/p>\n

This time, the source of the noise isn\u2019t Reform UK<\/a> or Tory<\/a> opposition complaining the Brexit vote was \u201cbetrayed\u201d, a tune they\u2019ve sung heartily in the past. Rather, it is the Labour<\/a> government blatantly signalling a desire to get closer to the European Union<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea that leaving the EU was the answer to all our cares and concerns has clearly been proved wrong,\u201d said Keir Starmer<\/a> on Monday in a speech to the City of London. It was his most direct intervention as prime minister on the matter to date.<\/p>\n

The motivation for his growing brazenness on Brexit is the pursuit of economic growth<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Post-budget forecasts by the UK\u2019s Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) show growth in Britain\u2019s economy flatlining below 1.5 per cent \u2013 or even declining slightly \u2013 between now and the next election due in 2029.<\/p>\n

The OBR has blamed Brexit for a 4 per cent shrinkage in the size of Britain\u2019s economy over the long term. The modest \u201creset\u201d in UK-EU ties agreed at a Lancaster House summit this year will claw back less than a sixth of the losses for Britain, according to analysis by the Centre for European Reform, a London think tank.<\/p>\n

Without better growth, Labour will struggle to fund the rebuild of public services it needs to have any chance of staying in power. Meanwhile, stronger growth might also lessen disenchantment that stems from economic deprivation in Labour\u2019s old heartlands where Reform now struts, threatening to swamp the governing party.<\/p>\n

On the political front, a platform that argued for closer EU ties to roll back the worst economic effects of Brexit \u2013 or perhaps even to roll back some of Brexit itself \u2013 would represent a clear dividing line between Labour and its right-wing political opponents at the next election. Polls suggest a majority of the UK public could back it.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Starmer\u2019s new Brexit line: it\u2019s a disaster \u2013 and Farage is to blameOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

In the Westminster rumour mill, a slow-creep back towards the EU is also being touted as evidence that the influence on Starmer\u2019s Downing Street operation of his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, may not be as all-encompassing as it was. The Corkman had pushed the prime minister, a Remainer by instinct, to accept Brexit.<\/p>\n

The evidence that Labour is gently pivoting its stance on the EU can be seen in what it has said; in what it has not said; and what it has done.<\/p>\n

In terms of what it has said, the subtle approach of recent months was bookended by landmark speeches.<\/p>\n

\"KeirKeir Starmer at the lady mayor’s banquet at the Guildhall in the City of London earlier this week. Photograph: Jaimi Joy\/Bloomberg <\/p>\n

The most recent was Starmer\u2019s address at the City\u2019s lady mayor banquet on Monday. The first was a speech at the end of August in the offices of Spectator magazine by Nick Thomas-Symonds, the UK\u2019s paymaster-general and the minister who leads EU negotiations for Starmer, his point man with Brussels.<\/p>\n

NTS, as he is known around Westminster, told the crowd that 16,000 British businesses had stopped exporting to the EU since 2021 due to the barriers raised by leaving the trading relationship. He said such exports were down 20 per cent.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one voted [in the 2016 referendum] for the kind of change I\u2019ve talked about,\u201d said the Welshman. \u201cThankfully, Britain still has choices.\u201d<\/p>\n

He suggested Britain would, as a sovereign nation, accept more \u201cshared rules\u201d with the EU in parts of its economy to spur growth. \u201cWe know we\u2019re going to have a fight on this,\u201d he said, suggesting a growing inclination to resume the fight with some Leavers.<\/p>\n

\"NickNick Thomas-Symonds at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. Photograph: EPA <\/p>\n

On Monday\u2019s speech in the City, Starmer\u2019s feelings were clear. He said Brexit as a policy template was \u201cutterly reckless\u201d. He said Britain needed to \u201cconfront the reality\u201d that leaving the EU had hurt the economy.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, even chancellor of the exchequer Rachel Reeves got in on the act<\/a>, blaming a \u201cchaotic Brexit\u201d for the fiscal straitjacket from which she has struggled to break free in the last bruising year-and-a-half.<\/p>\n

In terms of what it has not said, Starmer\u2019s Downing Street operation made no effort to deny UK media reports last weekend about Minouche Shafik, the prime minister\u2019s economic adviser, who was said to have privately urged him before the budget to consider taking Britain back into the EU\u2019s customs union.<\/p>\n

The prime minister and his EU minister, Thomas-Symonds, are still insisting that the UK\u2019s so-called Brexit \u201cred lines\u201d \u2013 no return to the customs union, no free movement and no return to the single market \u2013 remain intact. But for how long?<\/p>\n

Finally, in terms of what it has done, Starmer\u2019s government has sent a clear signal that closer ties with the EU are high on the agenda. This week, it emerged Symonds-Thomas, the equivalent of a junior minister, had been promoted to sit at cabinet from now on.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Fish disco freakout: Starmer looks to change tune on obstacles to industrial investmentOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

If NTS is rising in importance, that suggests his brief \u2013 relations with the EU \u2013 must be too.<\/p>\n

Negotiations started last month on a long-awaited (in the UK, at least), sanitary and phytosanitary agreement with the EU on exports of food and animals.<\/p>\n

It seems there could be more talking after that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The B-word that in recent years dared not breathe its name is returning to Westminster. Brexit is back…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611851,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[802,191060,2000,299,5187,1699,807,38002,386,16],"class_list":{"0":"post-611850","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-conservative-and-unionist-party","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-keir-starmer","15":"tag-labour-party-uk","16":"tag-reform-uk","17":"tag-uk"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115661876770600666","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611850","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=611850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}