Uncertainty over Donald Trump’s Middle East strategy has emboldened Britain’s Brexit-hating prime minister in criticising the UK’s EU withdrawal.
Keir Starmer told a press conference on Wednesday that a recent breakdown in relations with the U.S., especially over the war in Iran, had made it “increasingly clear” that “our long-term national interest requires closer partnership with our allies in Europe and with the EU.”
Starmer has held this position from the start, backing efforts to reverse the 2016 referendum soon after it was held. He is now seizing on global uncertainty to move that agenda forward.
Simon Clarke, the former Tory MP who now directs the ‘Onward’ think tank, said the PM was “shamelessly using war in the Gulf to effectively reverse Brexit—just as he always intended.” Starmer, he added, is “not even hiding it anymore.”
The Labour leader further underlined his ambition for closer ties with Brussels by suggesting that Brexit had caused “deep damage.” And while he has long ruled out dragging Britain back into the EU single market, he did say “we can do more” in relation to it, “because I think that’s hugely in our economic interests.”
Zia Yusuf, from Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, responded later on Wednesday that “to the degree our economy has been sluggish, it is because the great opportunity of Brexit has been utterly squandered” by establishment politicians.
‘We need a leader who is going to make decisions through one lens and one lens only.
Refom UK’s Home Affairs spokesman, Zia Yusuf, believes Keir Starmer is ‘not running the country’ and that the opportunity of Brexit has been ‘squandered’ by the Government. pic.twitter.com/MEL7RShJjB
Not that any of this will alter the prime minister’s path. At a ‘reset’ summit this summer, Starmer said his team will be “more ambitious and build closer economic cooperation and closer security cooperation.”
It is a partnership that recognises our shared values, our shared interests and our shared future—a partnership for this dangerous world that we must navigate together.
Nick Thomas-Symonds, minister in charge of negotiations with Europe, has suggested such a deal, once again aligning the UK more closely with the EU, could be completed by the end of this year.
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_.
