Branding leaving the European Union a “catastrophic mistake” and advocating Britain’s return to the bloc “one day”, Labour leadership hopeful Wes Streeting has forced Brexit up the agenda in an expected race to replace Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Almost 10 years since Britain voted narrowly to leave the EU, the Brexit debate has been an often muted backdrop to UK politics – something that leaders prefer to avoid to prevent a return of the bruising arguments that defined the referendum.
Yet Streeting, a supporter of the EU and former health minister who used his resignation last week to take a swipe at Starmer’s ailing premiership, has turned the focus to Brexit even though any return would be a long, drawn-out process.
In a thinly veiled leadership campaign launch on Saturday, Streeting said: “Britain’s future lies with Europe and one day, one day, back in the European Union.”
The speech, which despite offering an ill-defined future end goal, has raised the spectre of Brexit overshadowing a rival’s attempt to challenge Starmer by giving Nigel Farage’s populist anti-EU Reform UK party a rallying point.
‘A FRINGE ISSUE’ THE PUBLIC HAS LEFT BEHIND
Streeting’s words were met with surprise in the governing Labour Party, with lawmakers and the wider party wondering why he would, as one official described it, “pin himself to a fringe issue the public left behind years ago”.
Allies of leadership frontrunner, Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, suggested it was little more than a move to complicate his bid to win an election for a parliamentary seat – something necessary for him to go on to challenge Starmer.
It is something of a gift for veteran Brexit campaigner Farage. He has already promised to “throw absolutely everything at” the so-called by-election in Makerfield, an area in Greater Manchester, which voted to leave the EU at the 2016 referendum.
“For months, it has been clear that Keir Starmer has been attempting to sleepwalk us back towards the European institutions,” Farage told the Express newspaper.
“The upcoming contest in Makerfield will become a flashpoint in that battle … Voters are not fools and they deserve honesty from open-borders Burnham.”
Labour lawmaker Jonathan Hinder also suggested Streeting’s comments could backfire and persuade others in the party not to back his leadership bid if he does go ahead with one.
“There’s absolutely no way that I could support someone who thinks the way to unite our country at the moment is to go big on rejoining the EU, making that the cornerstone of their campaign,” he told BBC radio.
Polling suggests just over half of Britons support rejoining the EU, but that backing drops when voters are presented with some of the potential trade-offs involved, such as free movement with the bloc and the possibility of having to adopt the euro.
NO OFFICIAL LEADERSHIP CONTEST TRIGGERED YET
With the expected leadership race hotting up despite Starmer’s repeated statements that he is getting on with the job, the by-election is the next focus in a return of political drama Starmer had promised to put firmly in the past.
Revisiting the Brexit debate has only deepened that sense of instability.
Last week, Starmer used a speech to try to reset his premiership by pledging to put “Britain at the heart of Europe”, but fell short of promising any future membership of the bloc, which would demand a hefty price for London’s return.
There has yet to be an official leadership challenge to Starmer, who has vowed to fight on, but leadership rivals, such as Streeting and Burnham, are circling the prime minister.
Both have expressed their support for the EU in the past, and Streeting made it clear he respected the democratic vote to leave the bloc and was suggesting the party would have to win a mandate first to improve relations with Brussels. Only then, “one day, one day” Britain might rejoin the bloc.
Burnham said Brexit should not be an issue in the Makerfield by-election.
“In the long-term there is a case for that, but I’m not advocating that in this by-election,” Burnham told ITV News when asked about Britain rejoining the EU.
“In fact, what I am saying is focus now domestically. Britain has got to focus very much on the here and now and the issues that are affecting people.”
(Reporting by Elizabeth Piper）
