During his trip to Beijing last week, Labour prime minister Keir Starmer announced his desire to “go further” in aligning the UK with the European Union single market—reviving fears that his government is edging towards de facto re-entry while insisting that formal EU membership remains a “red line.”
Bloomberg’s Alex Wickham later, on Monday, cited London officials who say that closer alignment is key to preventing British companies from being excluded from EU supply chains in key sectors, thanks to the Commission’s ‘Made in Europe’ initiative.
Responding to these claims, former Brexit negotiator David Frost said that “another project fear campaign”—the name given to the scare tactics employed in a failed attempt to shut down the 2016 referendum—“seems to be coming.” He added that while it is “sensible to seek to discourage the EU from doing anything so silly …
It’s not sensible to suggest that such measures would mean we had to rejoin the single market and submit ourselves to laws in which we have no say. That would be much worse in the long run.
Claims of public backing also ring hollow with Labour now polling 12 points behind Reform, the party led by Nigel Farage—the figure most closely associated with Brexit.
Starmer has already agreed to hand over control to Brussels on trading rules relating to agriculture and electricity. Politicosuggests that he is looking to go further. The EU, for its own part, has also signalled that it has an “open mind” on pulling Britain closer to its orbit with a customs union.
Reports on Sunday added that the government is looking to tie Britain closer to the EU on defence, perhaps by re-entering talks on a ‘defence pact.’
New “high-level” meetings on UK-EU relations are set to take place this week.
Michael Curzon is a news writer for europeanconservative.com based in England’s Midlands. He is also Editor of Bournbrook Magazine, which he founded in 2019, and previously wrote for London’s Express Online. His Twitter handle is @MichaelCurzon_.
