“If we win the next election, the UK will not under any circumstances ask to return to the European Union, nor to the single market or customs union, and the free movement of people, services and goods with our partners in the UK will not be raised. continent”. Such a statement would be normal from the lips of Boris Johnson, but it is not so if it comes from Labor leader Keir Starmer, until recently an ardent Europhile.
However, even if it turns out to be an economic disaster (and the latest data on trade, public debt and investment speak for themselves, in addition to the 10% devaluation of the pound sterling against the dollar), Brexit is here to stay because the two main parties – Conservatives and Labor – are totally committed to the cause.
“What we have to do is make it work – Starmer pointed out in a speech before the Center for European Reform – reduce bureaucracy and barriers to trade, recover a relationship of mutual trust with Brussels, solve the problem of Northern Ireland and restore cooperation on science, technology and security issues.”
To achieve these objectives, the Johnson Government has resorted to threats and the possibility of violating international treaties, while Labor believes that it would achieve it through diplomacy, persuading the EU to establish channels exempt from controls and tariffs for agricultural and veterinary products traveling from Great Britain to Ulster, assimilating professional qualifications and with short-stay visas for business and artists’ trips.
But even on immigration, and despite the chronic problem of labor shortages, Keir Starmer says he would not touch the reforms made by Johnson, which have largely replaced European workers with Asians. “El Labor would not reopen the internal labor market to EU citizens,” the opposition leader stated emphatically.
Why is the Labor Party so categorically embracing Brexit, when only a third of its voters were in favor of leaving the EU in the 2016 referendum, and today the majority of Britons (including the conservative voters) admit that the country is worse off than before? The answer is fear. The fear of being unable to win the elections without the support of those Eurosceptic followers who do not want to accept the mistake and hope that at some point Brexit will offer dividends.
Keir Starmer has been heavily criticized for being silent on the issue (as on almost all). But now that he has spoken, he has also been disliked by a political group that has historically oscillated between Europhilia and Euroscepticism, but in recent times (especially with Tony Blair, who wanted to join the single currency) has been very pro-European. . One sector agrees with Starmer that to win the elections the issue must be settled and not offend those who consider that rethinking Brexit would constitute an attack on democracy. But another thinks it is wise to admit mistakes, and Britain’s prosperity happens to be an integral part of its main market.
