Should Labour try to Rejoin the EU?

Since becoming Labour leader, Keir Starmer has shifted his remain-stance on Brexit to a more conservative stance. While this conservative approach may alienate pro-Remain Labour voters, potentially pushing them towards other parties, will this strategy pay off, or could it backfire in the next General Election?

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00:00 - Introduction
00:57 - What is Labour’s Brexit policy?
04:30 - Should Starmer Be Pro-EU?

[m_ish_y]

all the hardwork to negotiate better terms for the UK since the Thatcher era are all... gone. Even there's a referendum to rejoin the EU, I doubt they will consider re-admitting a 'troublemaker' with a history favourably, if at all.

[zanovar]

The real question is whether the EU would be willing to let the UK back in. They probably won't be let back in with the same special privileges that they had before

[tonysegadelli]

In the end a lot of people will simply vote to get rid of the Tories so there's no benefit in frightening them. However, in government Starmer will be forced to work more closely with the EU or risk further damage to the economy

[crazycjk]

What's interesting is that the stats at the 7:15 show that 56% think Brexit was a mistake, however at 4:55, only 7% have Brexit as a priority and 1% as a top priority. Sounds pretty clear that Starmer's current position of "Make Brexit Work" is the correct one politically, even if it needs significantly more detail to hold meaning.

[dogestcreature]

I doubt the EU will accept the UK back, it was really good at setting an example to other countries as to what NOT to do. EU favorability grew pretty much everywhere

[richardjames]

I can to some extent understand why Labour started on this course, but as an ardent remainer, I am not sure this is now the best path. I grant you that the EU don't want us back until we have a more stable pollical situation with all parties wanting to re-join. But, we will NEVER have the same clout or op-outs that we had in the past, but as they say: every long journey starts with a single step, so lets spend time and money aligning as much as possible to start with.

[napoleonibonaparte]

It's more that Sir Starmer is focusing on red wall voters, and solving the short term issues of Brexit while focusing on its long term. As well as the realistic situation of the EU's own reluctance to touch on rejoining because of the UK's internal squabbles.

[andrewshort]

I understand that the EU has already made clear that it will not contemplate a re-join dialogue until all major polkitical parties in the UK agree on that policy. Labour cannot therefore unilaterally get us back in. They are trying to tread a rational path to soften the worst excesses of the hard Brexit until we can re-join. Re-adoption of agreed standards and other alignments will ease the problems, and the return path when it becomes feasible.

[heatherrobertson]

The problem is that there is a big difference between the majority thinking Brexit was a mistake and the majority voting for a return to the EU in the event of another referendum. Firstly, Starmer can't make an election commitment to rejoin the EU - we have given up any rights to do anything related to the EU. All he could do is commit to holding a referendum to indicate whether or not we want to rejoin, after which the EU might - or might not - allow us back in. Assuming he did commit to a referendum, think about how toxic would the debate around it be. We'd be straight back to the dark days of 2018/2019 (and personally I am firmly of the opinion that Johnson won the 2019 election so convincingly because people were simply sick of the debate). I imagine a significant number of voters would be turned off Labour just because they had re-opened this can of worms, regardless of how they feel about the EU. Secondly, how many of those people who want to rejoin the EU would feel the same if we have to adopt the Euro? Or join Schengen? Finally, think about how disastrous it would be if a second referendum was held and 'rejoin' lost. We would scupper our chances of getting back in for decades.

Starmer is right to steer clear of the debate. If Labour get into power they can work on improving our relations with Europe and perhaps when progress has been made on that front they can make the case that we would be better off within the EU. But I wouldn't expect that to happen for several years yet.

[tomgedney]

The EU won't allow us back in until (and it's when not if) the tories are also in favour of rejoining. While british democracy (forgive the oxymoron) is in the state it's in the EU would fear that the tories would throw their proverbial toys out the pram if the get reelected. Ergo it makes no sense for Labour to be pro rejoining the EU unless the tories are on side. It'll probably be them that calls for it if they lose two consecutive GEs

[darroncharlesworth]

Bit of a problem. One can't talk about the economy without acknowledging the devastating impact of Brexit.

[johncook]

If i was in Starmer's shoes I think I would take a similar approach. the Labour party has been out of power a long long time and it doesn't want to enter government with an already long list of issues to deal with and then poke the BREXIT fire again which would in turn suck the political energy from the room, better to get in and then slowly creep closer to the EU over time, thus appeasing the remainers.
It is also worth mentioning that many pro BREXIT folks feel that the entire establishment (conservative party included) do not ( did not) really want BREXIT which is in turn slowly splitting the Tory party as seen recently at the national Conservative conference. I suspect many pro BREXIT Tories want this version of conservatism gone so they can re-build a new version ready for the next election.
Starmer has a very difficult path to negotiate between two very partisan groups at the fringe but with many in middle who just want enough money to pay their bills, have a job and raise their families, in that sense he's right to pursue those who do not scream loudest from the political fringe and for whom BREXIT is but one issue in a difficult world.

[lupolinar]

It is mind boggling, that it took some Brits this long to realise that they were lied to, about how fabulous Brexit will be.

[samsurchoudhury]

It's easy to rule something out that can't happen. for instance: I officially rule myself out from a romantic relationship with Dua Lipa....

[prrrromotiongiven]

Firstly, turning the next election into another "brexit election" would be a blunder as this would help the Tories. The Tories are currently far more unpopular than brexit. Secondly, Starmer isn't even able to promise this as the EU have said they don't want to talk about us rejoining unless the issue is politically settled, as in all major parties agree they want to rejoin (which could easily take decades with how high that bar sounds to me).

[tombo]

The UK leaving the EU is up there among the WORST country decisions 😂 I’d say only Ukraine giving their nukes back to Russia was worse

[chrisdevine]

I think ultimately Labour knows that remain voters will vote for them regardless of their EU policy, just to get the Tories out of power. But the Brexit voters are a funny lot. Simply, they'd cut of their nose to spite their face. Labour needs to keep them sweet. Only when the Tory's themselves start talking about rejoining, will Labour risk ever making it official policy.

[Pironious]

If you're expecting Starmer to take a position noticably different from traditional conservative positions, you'll be sorely disappointed.

[AthrunWilshire]

No. The reason they lost many of the seats up North that were traditionally Labour supporting during a time when the Tories were universally lambasted, only came about because Labour couldn't commit to leaving the EU and that scared a lot of people who voted for Brexit to vote for a party they disliked because they were doubling down on leaving. If Labour had doubled down on leaving back then then the last general election would have been very different, I think.

The biggest issue that younger people face is that they do not know how to seek information outside of their bubble as they only socialise online and within their age group (myself included most of the time). The internet tailors your feed to show you information which is preferential to you and not necessarily a reflection of reality.

The EU won't take the risk of letting us back in, at least not for another generation (and even then it's unlikely). And if we did join then we wouldn't have any of the unique exceptions such as using the pound over the Euro.

[DRKrust]

I doubt the EU would accept the UK back until at least a generation has passed.