With the increasingly likely replacement of British prime minister Keir Starmer as the leader of the Labour Party, calls from the likely candidates to rejoin the European Union are growing stronger.
Such sentiments were most clearly expressed by former health secretary Wes Streeting, who resigned from cabinet to announce his candidacy for the top job. Without a general election, the next Labour leader would automatically become PM.
On Saturday, May 16th while announcing his candidature, Streeting told a London audience that “leaving the European Union was a catastrophic mistake.” The claim echoes the policy advice of Labour-friendly think tank The Resolution Foundation, which proposes negotiating a UK return to the single market for EU goods.
Streeting—seen as close to the “Blairite” wing of the Labour Party and, damagingly, to disgraced ‘New Labour’ functionary Peter Mandelson—may not yet have the support of Labour MPs needed to trigger a leadership contest. Other prospective challengers to Starmer could include his former deputy, Angela Rayner, and energy secretary Ed Miliband.
The prospective contest is further complicated by the projected return to parliament of Andy Burnham, currently Mayor of Greater Manchester, who would also scrap Brexit. Labour rules require that leadership challengers are sitting MPs, meaning that Burnham would need to secure candidate selection by a parliamentary constituency’s Labour party and then win a seat in parliament at a by-election. At present, Burnham has met neither of these criteria but to facilitate his candidacy an MP named Josh Simons has announced he will vacate a previously safe Labour seat in Makerfield, part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan.
In response to Streeting’s comment, Conservative Party Chairman Kevin Hollinrake seized, saying “whilst Labour relitigate Brexit, Britain is not being governed.”
Hollinrake called the remarks “yet another distraction … at a time when families and businesses want the government focused on the cost of living, the economy, public services and Britain’s defence”.
