Starmer Prepares To Rip Up Brexit

Sir Keir Starmer said he is prepared to align the UK even more closely with the EU, including the single market, if it is in the UK’s ‘national interest’.

In some of his strongest comments yet about Britain’s post-Brexit relationship with Brussels under Labour, the Prime Minister said he would look at rules governing border checks.

However, at a time when the number of migrants is already close to an all-time high, such a step would spark a significant political controversy.

The single market is built on the premise of free movement of goods, services, capital, and people, with the latter one of the key drivers behind the Leave campaign a decade ago.

Speaking to the BBC, Sir Keir Starmer insisted there would be no return to free movement beyond a ‘youth mobility scheme allowing thousands of EU and UK citizens aged under 35  to work and travel freely.

However, the EU will undoubtedly include more freedom of movement in any discussions about single market access.

Sir Keir Starmer told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: ‘I think we should get closer, and if it’s in our national interest to have even closer alignment with the single market, then we should consider that, we should go that far.

‘We’re already aligning on energy, reconnecting to energy in Europe on emissions, but I think the single market further alignment, as I say, if it’s in our interest to do so, we should take that step.’

Asked whether he would be willing to revisit freedom of movement, allowing EU citizens with no limit to come to the UK, he said: ‘No, but we are looking at a youth mobility scheme which will be for young people to travel, to work, to enjoy themselves in different European countries, to have that experience.’

It came as he was warned he faces a ‘civil war’ inside Labour if he attempts to reverse Brexit in an endeavour to shore up his embattled leadership.

The row erupted after Health Secretary Wes Streeting called for a ‘deeper trading relationship with the EU’ – a move which was interpreted as both a call to rejoin the Customs Union and an attempt to gain the support of Europhile Labour MPs ahead of a leadership bid against the Prime Minister.

Mr Streeting’s possible main rival in any contest, Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, has also been agitating against Brexit, saying that he hopes that the UK will rejoin the EU in his lifetime.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has told Labour not to try to boost its flagging poll ratings by ‘re-opening old Brexit wounds’.

Now Labour MP Dan Carden has warned Sir Keir Starmer – and those aspiring to succeed him – not to rejoin a Customs Union, saying: ‘We hear suggestions that this is being seriously contemplated by some at the very top of the Government.

‘Moreover, we hear that it appears to be the aim of people who now have designs on the PM’s job. 

‘Andy Burnham has declared how he wants to see us back in the EU in his lifetime, while Wes Streeting wants us to have a deeper trading relationship with Europe.’

Mr Carden’s reference to the mayor comes after Westminster sources disclosed his Liverpool Walton seat was on the list of constituencies which Mr Burnham had targeted in the expectation that the sitting MP would stand aside to permit him to fight a by-election, return to the Commons and then challenge the Prime Minister.

Mr Carden added: ‘The European Union (EU) is… a low-growth bloc with a declining share of global GDP. Joining a Customs Union would mean scrapping our post-Brexit trade deals with places that are the 21st-century growth centres, such as the US and India.

‘Shifting closer to Brussels would mean giving up our hard-won national freedoms. 

‘I urge Sir Keir not to seek to tie the UK into a new Customs Union or any other such arrangement which may carry a disguised name but amount to the same thing.’

Labour MPs in the pro-Brexit ‘Red Wall’ seats of the Midlands and North are extremely concerned about the threat posed by Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, which would make political capital out of any Brexit backsliding by Labour.

Labour MP Graham Stringer said the PM would face ‘a rebellion of scores of Labour MPs if he sought to take us back into any sort of Customs Union’.

He told The Mail on Sunday: ‘It will lead to civil war inside Labour. Starmer’s Parliamentary colleagues know they stood on a clear manifesto pledge to do no such thing.

‘It would be especially difficult for Labour MPs in the so-called Red Wall to support such a flagrant manifesto breach, as many have Reform breathing down their necks. They would be committing electoral suicide.’

Mr Streeting said in an interview last month that Britain should pursue closer economic ties with the EU. ‘The best way for us to get more growth into our economy is a deeper trading relationship with the EU,’ he said. ‘We’ve taken a massive economic hit, leaving the European Union.’

Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy also claimed that countries such as Turkey were enjoying economic benefits from Customs Union membership.

Their remarks came after the Government encountered claims it was watering down Brexit after announcing the UK would rejoin the Erasmus system of student exchanges in 2027, at a cost of £570 million per year.

Ms Badenoch accused Labour of embarking on a desperate ploy to shore up its core vote. She warned the move would mean Britain giving up the trade deals it has struck since leaving the EU, including with the US and India, while opening the door to more demands for concessions from Brussels.

She said: ‘The only people advocating for such a policy – and here I include the trade union bosses who have also proposed it – do not understand what a Customs Union actually is.

‘This is why the renewed chatter about dragging Britain back into the EU’s Customs Union should worry us all.

‘It is not a sign of pragmatism – it is a symptom of Labour’s weakness. Now that the Government is weak and has no plan or new ideas, it has reopened old Brexit wounds in the vain hope that doing so will make it more popular. It won’t.’

Sir Keir Starmer has previously ruled out rejoining the Customs Union, describing it as a ‘red line’.

Another senior Labour MP said privately: ‘Remainiacs around Starmer may be pushing this, but it would cause mayhem in the Labour Party.

‘It would mean British businesses having to take rules from Brussels without the UK Government having a say on them. It would be unacceptable.’

There were a lot of people who voted for Brexit to their shame, and if there were another vote, I would vote to rejoin. Brexit has not helped us in any way, and we have lost millions from our economy. We are vulnerable, and people are delusional if they can’t see this.

The UK was in the EU for 47 years, and for 47 years it worked. You know what they say, ‘if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.’

All-powerful people are absolute dictators, but Labour lied its way into power and has been adamant about pursuing its own agenda, and he has no right doing this without taking it to the British people first.

Many people voted out and regret it, while others would argue that we left and that it shouldn’t be reversed, and it seems that we now have a neurodivergent Prime Minister with Tony Blair’s fist shoved up his puppet hole, making his lips move.

Keir Starmer is a Judas and a liar. Will the Labour Party ditch him? Well, I would say it’s just a matter of time and not when, and hopefully, he will take a few others with him.

The most honest and respectable thing for any current UK prime minister to do would be to call for a fresh referendum if the prime minister wishes to dismantle Brexit, but we all know that this man is not honourable, so we shouldn’t hold our breath.

Brexit has caused nothing but misery to the British economy, and it has been a catastrophe, voted in by the gullible.

I myself didn’t want Brexit, but then I don’t want this man touching anything before he breaks that as well, and even though I was opposed to Brexit, the country had a referendum and voted to leave, so why is he going against what was voted for? We live in a democratic country, not a dictatorship.

His obvious aim is to destroy this country, but then, is anyone surprised? NO! Because all that Labour do is lie, gaslight and then lie again, and his interests are not with the British people, which makes him a weak doormat.

The trouble is, how many referendums can we possibly have? And if we do, then we are just squandering money.

Keir Starmer is destroying the UK, and mark my words, he’s not finished yet.