This blog was originally published by the London School of Economics and Political Science here. Many people in the UK sense that rejoining the EU would be a very different experience than remaining would have been, writes Derrick Wyatt. Keir Starmer is determined not to damage Labour’s chances at the next general election with the distraction of renewed EU membership. An ever closer non-union with Europe is a worthy ambition for any British government.
I've seen no evidence KS has "ruled-out" re-joining the EU. He only talks about the EU in the present and not in the future tense. Quite clever on his part, I'd say.
Similarly, "brought some benefits" above should be in the future conditional tense, if rendered accurately from KS radio answer.
Membership of the euro (and e.g. Schengen) would be matters for negotiation as Article 49 TEU makes clear.
And excluding any new member states from pre-exiting existing common debt would take a Commission lawyer about 10 minutes when drafting accession treaty. Thus also a red herring.
Labour says it "will" (not "might") renegotiate the TCA "to fill in the gaps". (cf Reeves FT last July).
And I'm puzzled why you are silent on the N/Ireland situation?
“We have exited the EU and we are not going back - let me be very clear in the north east about that. There is no case for rejoining.
“What I want to see now is not just Brexit done in the sense that we’re technically out of the EU, I want to make it work. I want to make sure we take advantage of the opportunities and we have a clear plan for Brexit.” (February 2022)
This makes sense to me because I doubt the clock could be wound back. All the problems I identify could in theory be solved with a negotiation that went the UK's way. But I doubt the Member States and perhaps in particular France and Germany would want it to go the UK's way. They would like to see the UK back, but back as a Member State joining the euro and supporting initiatives like the post covid bail-out and channelling defence initiatives increasingly via the EU rather than via NATO or bilaterally.
I do think Labour will if it wins next time "tweak" the TCA. By that I mean accept some alignment on agri-food with a NZ-type deal which would improve the operation of the Northern Ireland protocol. I didn't go into that because we don't know what shape the NIP will be in at the time of the next General Election - it will get incrementally better most likely - and it seemed to be secondary to what I was writing about.
I think your blog only betrays your own biases.
I've seen no evidence KS has "ruled-out" re-joining the EU. He only talks about the EU in the present and not in the future tense. Quite clever on his part, I'd say.
Similarly, "brought some benefits" above should be in the future conditional tense, if rendered accurately from KS radio answer.
Membership of the euro (and e.g. Schengen) would be matters for negotiation as Article 49 TEU makes clear.
And excluding any new member states from pre-exiting existing common debt would take a Commission lawyer about 10 minutes when drafting accession treaty. Thus also a red herring.
Labour says it "will" (not "might") renegotiate the TCA "to fill in the gaps". (cf Reeves FT last July).
And I'm puzzled why you are silent on the N/Ireland situation?
Thank you for reading the piece and commenting. Everybody has biases I guess. I voted remain, so that is one bias of mine.
There are a number of press reports of statements by KS ruling out rejoining the EU. See for example https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/keir-starmer-brexit_uk_620a1851e4b03230246d43a2
“We have exited the EU and we are not going back - let me be very clear in the north east about that. There is no case for rejoining.
“What I want to see now is not just Brexit done in the sense that we’re technically out of the EU, I want to make it work. I want to make sure we take advantage of the opportunities and we have a clear plan for Brexit.” (February 2022)
This makes sense to me because I doubt the clock could be wound back. All the problems I identify could in theory be solved with a negotiation that went the UK's way. But I doubt the Member States and perhaps in particular France and Germany would want it to go the UK's way. They would like to see the UK back, but back as a Member State joining the euro and supporting initiatives like the post covid bail-out and channelling defence initiatives increasingly via the EU rather than via NATO or bilaterally.
I do think Labour will if it wins next time "tweak" the TCA. By that I mean accept some alignment on agri-food with a NZ-type deal which would improve the operation of the Northern Ireland protocol. I didn't go into that because we don't know what shape the NIP will be in at the time of the next General Election - it will get incrementally better most likely - and it seemed to be secondary to what I was writing about.
best wishes,
Derrick