{"id":651293,"date":"2025-12-23T23:05:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T23:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/651293\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T23:05:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T23:05:22","slug":"reversing-brexit-wont-save-starmers-skin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/651293\/","title":{"rendered":"Reversing Brexit won\u2019t save Starmer\u2019s skin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wes Streeting\u2019s insistence this weekend that Keir Starmer must go further in undoing Brexit<\/a> merely says aloud what has long been implicit. It took Britain a decade to get into Europe and four torturous and divisive years to extricate itself half a century later. Yet here we are again.<\/p>\n

Freed from European control, Britain has struck trade deals<\/a> around the world \u2013 though too much of Brussels\u2019s regulatory dead hand remains, constraining business and diluting the independence Brexit was meant to secure. But now, under unreconstructed Eurozealot Keir Starmer, direct rule from Brussels is creeping back onto the agenda<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And why wouldn\u2019t it? The Prime Minister made his name on this issue. Having only entered the political fray in 2015, he rose from relative obscurity under Corbyn to the last Remaining hope, prompting speculation as early as 2016 that he might one day lead Labour.<\/p>\n

During the long-drawn-out renegotiations, Starmer argued for a second referendum. Like many, he repeated the line that the British electorate had somehow been duped by snake-oil Leave campaigners.<\/p>\n

So it was likely that, once in office, Starmer would cosy up to Europe. With his approval rating plunging to -48 and his party polling at around 20 per cent, the direction of travel is now clear.<\/p>\n

A \u201cyouth mobility\u201d scheme is being advanced and Nick Thomas-Symonds, who once held Theresa May\u2019s government in contempt over Brexit, has been elevated to the cabinet. At a handsome \u00a3570m a year \u2013 though even this may be an underestimate \u2013 Britain will rejoin the Erasmus student programme<\/a>. Senior party figures, implausibly, talk of the customs union as the key to an economic recovery already compromised by excessive taxation and regulation, which would only grow if we rejoined.<\/p>\n

Remainers still cling onto a number of conceits. First, that membership of the customs union and single market \u2013 or \u201ccloser alignment\u201d, as Starmer euphemistically puts it \u2013 will shake us from our economic torpor. People like Wes Streeting, who is now pushing Starmer to go further, see salvation in Europe.<\/p>\n

Yet its supposed powerhouses are hardly thriving. Germany\u2019s economy contracted in 2024<\/a>, France\u2019s unemployment rate is 7 per cent, Italy\u2019s GDP per capita has barely increased in a decade. These economies are trapped under the weight of their welfare states, mass migration, disastrous energy policy and suffocating regulation. Seeking rescue from them is like trying to tow yourself to shore whilst chained to a sinking ship. Eventually, the waters will close over you.<\/p>\n

In any case, Brexit was never primarily about money, it was about sovereignty, democracy, \u201ctaking back control\u201d \u2013 the idea that politicians must listen to voters and decisions should be made by elected representatives accountable to the public \u2013 not EU bureaucrats with questionable legitimacy. It\u2019s going to be difficult for Labour to now argue that overturning what voters wanted is not just more of the same old.<\/p>\n

Second, that in some unspecified way rejoining would make it possible to control the never-ending flow of illegal migrants, which act as Reform\u2019s main recruiter. We are clearly incapable of doing anything ourselves, seems to be the assumption.<\/p>\n

Third, that closer ties won\u2019t only save the country, but the Party, too. Some Labour strategists now consider a pro-Remain position essential to stopping the slippage of young, cosmopolitan, globalist voters to the Greens and Liberal Democrats. If the story of the Right has in 2025 been Reform; on the Left it is the astonishing surge in support for the Green Party<\/a>, now polling at around 17 per cent.<\/p>\n

Surveys suggest a third of Labour supporters want to rejoin the EU completely \u2013 seemingly oblivious to the fact we would be guaranteed to do so on worse terms at great cost. Nearly 40 per cent want to rejoin the customs union and single market.<\/p>\n

A plan to pledge this in Labour\u2019s 2029 manifesto could be Starmer\u2019s last roll of the dice. \u201cHe\u2019s facing the same problem the Tories had in the last Parliament \u2013 a deeply divided electoral coalition,\u201d says historian Stephen Davies.<\/p>\n

\u201cStarmer has no choice but to upset one half and hope a Left-wing stance on economics will be enough to keep the other onside.\u201d This will confirm Labour as the metropolitan party of the graduates, the public sector \u2013 the new \u201cworking\u201d class.<\/p>\n

But it hinges on Starmer surviving to 2029. Already, the sharks are circling, with around two thirds of the Parliamentary Labour Party convinced he cannot survive past May\u2019s elections.<\/p>\n

Red Wall MPs representing Leave-majority constituencies, who would rather like to hang onto their seats, will fiercely resist abandoning the Party\u2019s base. Senior figures in Blue Labour \u2013 the conservative wing to which Starmer\u2019s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney<\/a> is closely aligned \u2013 say they would be \u201cappalled and disgusted\u201d at the betrayal. The PM\u2019s authority is already fragile; another rebellion on the scale of the welfare revolt could be terminal.<\/p>\n

Decades after Charles de Gaulle brusquely vetoed Britain\u2019s accession talks to the European Economic Community, we are still \u2013 just about \u2013 an independent nation rather than a continental appendage.<\/p>\n

Yet now we are run by a haughty human rights lawyer who distrusts public opinion and believes in the supremacy of international law and technocratic globalism. It seems unlikely that, even if it somehow sneaks into the manifesto, a commitment to turning the clock back to 2016 will prove a winning ploy for this discredited Government.<\/p>\n

Try full access to The Telegraph free today. Unlock their award-winning website and essential news app, plus useful tools and expert guides for your money, health and holidays.<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wes Streeting\u2019s insistence this weekend that Keir Starmer must go further in undoing Brexit merely says aloud what…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":651294,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,6852,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,31172,16,15,3595],"class_list":{"0":"post-651293","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-customs-union","11":"tag-eu","12":"tag-europe","13":"tag-european","14":"tag-european-union","15":"tag-great-britain","16":"tag-starmer","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-wes-streeting"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115771390554979935","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651293","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=651293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}