Britain under Labour would go on a “date” with Brussels in order to rekindle relations, David Lammy has said. The comments were delivered at this year’s Labour conference, at which it appears our “thin” ties with the EU will be placed under heavy scrutiny.
It took Lammy no more than three days to call for a second referendum after his side lost the first one in June 2016. He has spent the time since making clear his desire to “[turn] the page on the era of acrimony” with the EU and is becoming bolder on the subject as the next general election comes closer.
The shadow foreign secretary’s comments suggest that his end-game is still for Britain to rejoin the EU. “Dating,” it appears, is simply the first step—remarriage is on the cards. He said:
We had a very, very bitter divorce with the EU. It’s a divorce that went on for years and years and years … No one in this room in all seriousness would suggest you can have a divorce and … that you could get married again without even going on a date.
The starting point for a Labour government is let’s get back to the strong partners that we have always traditionally been with our friends and colleagues in Europe. Let us get back to structured dialogue, let us build on what we have, and that starts with the trade agreement that we have and the review [of this agreement] in 2025.
Writer Elliot Hammer joked in response that “everybody knows the best thing to do after a messy divorce is start dating them again.”
This comes less than a month after Sir Keir Starmer made Brexit a key issue of the next election by describing the current post-Brexit agreement as “too thin” and insisting that he would build greater bonds. French and German officials have also drawn up plans which could see the UK become an “associate member” of the Brussels bloc—a design that a Starmer government would be likely to snap up.
Beyond suggestions of associate membership, it is unclear how Labour would shape future relations with Brussels—if it sticks, that is, to its pledge not to put the country back in the single market and customs union.
