{"id":981895,"date":"2026-05-24T13:24:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T13:24:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/981895\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T13:24:35","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T13:24:35","slug":"revolt-against-uks-starmer-revives-bitter-debate-over-undoing-brexit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/981895\/","title":{"rendered":"Revolt against UK\u2019s Starmer revives bitter debate over undoing Brexit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The thorny question of whether Britain should unwind a decade of estrangement from the European Union is resurfacing as the Labour Party starts to imagine a future beyond Prime Minister Keir Starmer.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Two key figures have emerged as potential challengers after a series of political body blows that have left Starmer\u2019s leadership in crisis, and the spectre of rejoining the EU was creeping back into the debate.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Wes Streeting, who resigned from Starmer\u2019s government as health secretary last week, argued in favour of rejoining the bloc in a speech on Saturday, saying the decision to leave in 2016 was \u201ca catastrophic mistake\u201d.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">While less forceful in tone, Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester who plans to stand as Labour\u2019s candidate in a June 18 by-election so he can mount a challenge against Starmer, also said in an interview on Saturday that there was a case for rejoining the EU.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The comments follow heavy losses by the party in local elections earlier this month to the right-wing Reform UK and the leftist Green Party. In the aftermath, Labour members of Parliament pointed to voters\u2019 dissatisfaction with Starmer as a contributing factor, and more than 90 MPs have since publicly called for the prime minister to resign.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Although Streeting refrained from mounting an immediate challenge against Starmer after stepping down, he said on Saturday that he would run in a leadership contest against Burnham, who must first gain a seat in the House of Commons before he can stage a campaign.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Wes Streeting. Photo: TNS\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4e7562f5-b794-42cb-a5b9-0b5c45d2b3e2_595de0ff.jpg\" title=\"Wes Streeting. Photo: TNS\"\/>Wes Streeting. Photo: TNS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The thorny question of whether Britain should unwind a decade of estrangement from the European Union is resurfacing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":981896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,807,8414,384,16,15,3595],"class_list":["post-981895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brexit","tag-brexit","tag-britain","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-european-union","tag-great-britain","tag-keir-starmer","tag-labour","tag-nigel-farage","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wes-streeting"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116629778557063115","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/981895","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=981895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/981895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/981896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=981895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=981895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=981895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}