Is that it? After two years of studiously ignoring the issue, Sir Keir Starmer finally delivered his big Brexit speech yesterday to, er, a somewhat underwhelmed audience. Facing accusations of being part of the Remainiac elite, Starmer’s team naturally decided the best course of action was to brief his speech to the Financial Times (backed Remain), deliver it under the auspices of the Centre for European Reform (staunchly pro-EU) and hold it at the Irish Embassy (of course).
The speech itself largely centred on five fairly uncontroversial ideas like a new veterinary deal and making it easier for UK musicians to tour around Europe. There was standard soap about the need for co-operation and how we Brits shouldn’t be beastly in picking fights with those eminently reasonable and selfless chaps in Brussels. Jolly good luck with that. But the main reason for all the excited chatter was that Starmer pledged to not re-enter the European single market or customs union, if elected to government.
This, predictably, sparked the fury of the Europhiles within Sir Keir’s party. Quick off the mark was Stella Cresy, chair of the Labour Movement for Europe, who fired off a statement declaring that ‘We are only just beginning to understand damage Brexit is doing to Britain so we urge Keir to make sure nothing is off the table.’ Sadiq Khan meanwhile didn’t even wait for the Labour leader to finish his speech, declaring that the UK should rejoin the EU Single Market and that ‘on many occasions I agree with the Labour party, on some occasions I may disagree.’ Doesn’t exactly sound like a party committed to preserving the Brexit settlement.
It’s not the first time of course that Starmer has got a Brexit call wrong. As Jeremy Corbyn’s chief spokesman on the issue, Sir Keir spent years ducking and equivocating on Labour’s stance on a second referendum. This is despite him pledging just days before the 2017 election to accept the verdict of the 2016 plebiscite ‘from a position of principle’. Patrick O’Flynn enjoyably skewers Starmer’s record elsewhere on Coffee House, but Mr S remembers a telling anecdote from former No 10 comms chief Sir Robbie Gibb about Sir Keir’s double-dealing.
Gibb recalls how, during the dying days of Theresa May’s premiership, there were cross-party talks to try to find a consensus to get Brexit over the line. Frustrated with Starmer’s constant stonewalling – and the curious way in which such meetings would constantly be leaked – Gibb decided to present the Labour MP with a list of demands. Starmer proceeded to go through the document and ridicule it line by line, dismissing each one as completely unreasonable. Gibb replied dryly that he had simply copy and pasted the list from a Labour party press release sent out that very morning. Whoops!
Hardly a surprise then that so few trust Sir Keir on the issue of Brexit.
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