Starmer sends his critics into a spin – but will Brexit deal deliver?
The Prime Minister says it’s now “time to move on from the stale old debates” of Brexit. It’s amazing he didn’t crack a grin as he said these words, knowing as he did that his critics would immediately work themselves up into a frenzy.
The critics – including, but not limited to Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch – did not disappoint. As Keir Starmer and the EU’s top brass were enjoying lunch on the Thames courtesy of the Royal Navy, cries of “betrayal” and “surrender” were echoing around Westminster.
For those of us who had to chronicle the original Brexit dramas, the build up to this summit was somewhat triggering, especially when a UK government source declared yesterday that “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed” – a phrase I can still hear Michel Barnier uttering throughout 2018. When the deal emerged yesterday morning, it was clear that quite a lot had been agreed and it produced one of those rare political moments where pretty much everyone was right in what they said.
Starmer’s strategy is not without risk
Starmer was right when he said he was “delivering what the British people voted for” (this approach to the EU was in the Labour manifesto) and he was right when he said the new arrangements were “unprecedented” given that no other non-EU state has come to such intimate terms with the bloc. But shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith was also right when he said the deal will leave the UK as a “rule-taker” (because it will) and Nigel Farage was right when he said the deal is a betrayal of the UK fishing industry (because it is). Former Brexit minister Steve Baker was also right to tell City PM that “this was always Starmer’s plan” – because it was.
But that’s politics for you; Starmer chose this fight and, just days after inking deals with India and the US, he’s got his hat-trick. His calculation is that Reform UK and what’s left of the Tory party will only hurt themselves by lashing out on an issue that most voters don’t want to hear about any more. As a political strategy it’s not without risk as more and more of Labour’s 2024 voters flock to Farage’s party, but business groups are pleased with this deal and Starmer is betting that an economic upside will ultimately triumph over ‘outdated’ arguments about sovereignty.
That theory will be put to the test in the months ahead.