In a speech on Monday night, the Labour leader will make clear that the party will neither seek to reverse Brexit nor soften Boris Johnson’s hard Brexit by returning to the single market which included the free movement of people and goods across the EU. The former director of public prosecutions has tried to maintain a delicate and diplomatic balance amid the divided views on Brexit within his party, and its supporters and voters. Therefore, we will continue to examine Keir Starmer’s policies in recent years and the solutions he has provided to the current problems.
Starmer casts himself as an “honest broker” able to reach better compromises on key areas of disagreement with the EU such as the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Although both sides wanted to reduce trade barriers between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, the government’s approach had “eroded” trust in the UK, Starmer told the Centre for European Reform think tank. “Labour will change that,” he argued. “We will be the honest broker our countries need. We will get the protocol working and we will make it the springboard to securing a better deal for the British people.”
The Labour leader set out a series of proposals to “make Brexit work”, notably over Northern Ireland, including a new veterinary agreement for agri-product trade, and a system for low-risk goods to enter Northern Ireland without checks. Other proposals include a scheme for the mutual recognition of professional qualifications with the EU and a new policing and security arrangement with Brussels.
Here is a quick reminder of what Starmer has said in the past and what his policies were:
June 2016: “The EU referendum result was catastrophic for the UK, for our communities and for the next generation.” – Starmer’s resignation letter to Jeremy Corbyn.
2018: The party rejected an amendment to the withdrawal bill which would keep Britain in the European Economic Area (EEA) and the single market, with Starmer proposing closer links to the EU and promising to negotiate a version of free movement. The EU rejected it as “cakeism”.
January 2021: After the hard Brexit deal struck by Lord Frost, Starmer abandoned the commitment to free movement of people which he had made in the Labour leadership contest. “I don’t think that there’s scope for major renegotiation. We’ve just had four years of negotiation. We’ve arrived at a treaty and now we’ve got to make that treaty work,” he said.
June 2022: “You cannot move forward or grow the country or deliver change or win back the trust of those who have lost faith in politics if you’re constantly focused on the arguments of the past,” Starmer tells the Centre for European Reform.
Starmer continued “There are some who say, we don’t need to make Brexit work – we need to reverse it. I couldn’t disagree more.”
“Because you cannot move forward or grow the country or deliver change or win back the trust of those who have lost faith in politics if you’re constantly focused on the arguments of the past. We cannot afford to look back over our shoulder because all the time we are doing that we are missing what is ahead of us. So let me be very clear. Under Labour, Britain will not go back into the EU. We will not be joining the single market. We will not be joining a customs union.”
Keir Starmer has unveiled “10 key principles” behind his pitch for power, but omitted many of the left-wing pledges that helped win him the Labour leadership.
The 10 principles in the essay, titled “The Road Ahead”, are listed by as follows, designating Keir Starmer’s policies:
- We will always put hard-working families and their priorities first.
- If you work hard and play by the rules, you should be rewarded fairly.
- People and businesses are expected to contribute to society, as well as receive.
- Your chances in life should not be defined by the circumstances of your birth – hard work and how you contribute should matter.
- Families, communities and the things that bring us together must once again be put above individualism.
- The economy should work for citizens and communities. It is not good enough to just surrender to market forces.
- The role of government is to be a partner to private enterprise, not stifle it.
- The government should treat taxpayer money as if it were its own. The current levels of waste are unacceptable.
- The government must play its role in restoring honesty, decency and transparency in public life.
- We are proudly patriotic but we reject the divisiveness of nationalism.
As can be seen, promises to pursue “economic justice”, “common ownership”, “equality” and “defending migrants’ rights” are not mentioned in a 14,000-word essay released ahead of a make-or-break party conference. Instead, the Labour leader’s “10 simple key principles” include to “put hard-working families first”, to reward people who “work hard and play by the rules”, and to restore “honesty, decency and transparency in public life”. They are intended to “form a new agreement between Labour and the British people”, Sir Keir said.
The “lost decade” since 2010 began with the Tories “using the global financial crisis as a smokescreen for rolling back the state”. “Second, a lazy, complacent veer from patriotism to nationalism, resulting in a botched exit from the European Union, the erosion of our defence and military capabilities and an unfolding foreign policy disaster in Afghanistan. “And third, the ongoing attempts to import American-style divisions on social, cultural and sometimes national lines.”
Starmer elaborated policies to solve current problems as follows:
The first step is to sort out the Northern Ireland Protocol. If it is going to make Brexit work, that has to be the starting point. The second step they would take is to tear down unnecessary barriers. Outside of the single market and a customs union, they will not be able to deliver complete frictionless trade with the EU.
The third step will be to support Britain’s world-leading industries. That means mutual recognition of professional qualifications ensuring services can compete and restoring access to funding and vital research programmes. Step four would be ensuring to keep Britain safe. The final part of his plan will be to invest in Britain.
Conclusion
Partygate and the cost of living crisis mean that, if there was an election tomorrow, Johnson’s 2019 majority would in all likelihood be wiped out and Keir Starmer would end up in Downing Street. Starmer as MP for Holborn and St Pancras since 2015, ideologically described as being on the soft left within the Labour Party, and previously Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), accepted an appointment as shadow Brexit secretary in September 2016 and may change the future of the Labour Party in the UK.
