Sir Keir Starmer has consistently said he has no plans for the UK to rejoin the EU single market, customs union, or freedom of movement policy.
Keir Starmer could be about to betray Brexit (Image: PA)
Little wonder. Even before the election the now-Prime Minister knew Reform UK was breathing down Labour’s necks in the old industrial heartlands. This was confirmed on July 4 when Nigel Farage’s party came in a close second in nearly 100 seats.
These are voters which gave Boris Johnson a massive majority in 2019 but who are super sensitive to any betrayal of Brexit even if they sympathise with many of Labour’s economic policies.
Nevertheless, while Labour has so far refused EU overtures to rejoin even a limited youth mobility scheme, the PM left himself wiggle room in this year’s manifesto to rejoin and realign by stealth.
The Product Regulation and Metrology Bill is a case point. One clause allows the government to import EU regulations on the environmental impact of products, not only to the EU but to all goods, and this could be applied on an ongoing basis.
We know Labour is keen on realigning regarding animals and plants, and the government could well seek to import EU regulations here as well, all in the name of getting better trade deals with Brussels, alongside enhanced defence ties.
Rejoining by stealth would not only get Britain back into bed with Brussels without so many folks knowing – not least in the Red Wall – but tie up any future Tory or Reform government, while placating rejoiners in the Labour camp.
We have hints already of potential back peddling when it comes to not signing up to an EU-wide youth mobility scheme. After all, given how unpopular the huge jump in non-EU migration was under the Conservatives, one could well imagine Labour arguing this is a quick-and-dirty way of satisfying the needs of business while reducing record rates of global migration.
We know the EU won’t allow Sir Keir to cherry-pick. If he wants better trade and defence ties, he better start compromising. The EU top brass have already made clear any mobility scheme would necessitate EU students paying UK student fees.
How that flies with a poverty-pleading university sector is anyone’s guess. But the agenda seems obvious. Sir Keir knows – thanks to how badly the Tories botched Brexit – that leaving the EU is nowhere near as popular as it once was.
This gives him the excuse to rejoin by the back door, even as he insists the government has no intention of rejoining the EU through the front. With a Tory party desperate to outflank Reform UK meanwhile, Labour may believe it has an open goal in appealing to a Tory-lite centrist base in the Stockbroker Belt, which was never so on board with leaving the EU in the first place.
As Labour prepares to dish out tough medicine, it could justify mission creep with Brussels in the name of economic expediency (despite clearly subjecting the public to a bait-and-switch when it comes to its now-evident austerity programme).
Nigel Farage will be sensitive to all the above. The spiritual leader of the British Right no doubt senses an opportunity to be the Brexit spokesman in Parliament, guaranteeing it is Reform – not the Tories – which stand most visibly in opposition to Labour.
In the meantime, this is a Government – rejoiner and remainer in spirit – which has given itself plenty of wiggle room to get back into bed with Brussels, betray the Red Wall, and betray a referendum which Sir Keir publicly accepts was binding.
