It may be a coincidence, but the week Boris Johnson fell also happened to be the week Sir Keir Starmer took a clear position on Brexit for the first time since the 2016 vote. At a Guinness-fueled soiree organized by the Center for European Reform (CER) at the Irish Embassy, he clumsily climbed over the Brexit fence.
Labour, Sir Keir said, would not bring the UK back into the single market or customs union, but would try to negotiate sector-by-sector deals with the EU in areas such as agri-food and vocational qualifications to “break down unnecessary barriers” to trade. His party will re-engage in EU research programs such as Horizon and “share data and best practice” with Brussels to “keep Britain safe”. “We’re not going to be able to make trade completely frictionless,” he said, “but there are things we can do to make trade easier.”
As I listened, I had a strange feeling. I had heard something like this before. Then I realized: this is exactly the deal Theresa May tried to negotiate before allowing herself to be pushed up the backside. Here are some parts of a major Brexit speech she gave in March 2018: “We recognize … our market access … will have to be different,” she said, “but we should only allow new barriers to be introduced when absolutely necessary.’
So she suggested that as the EU and the UK negotiate a deal, “it would make sense to continue to recognize each other [professional] qualifications”. She proposed “the creation of a comprehensive science and innovation pact with the EU” and deals across sectors in chemicals, medicine and space. She accepted, like Sir Keir, that it would mean “to observe [EU] rules’ in these industries, but argued: “If this is cherry-picking, then any trade agreement is cherry-picking.” This argument, alas, fell on barren ground in Brussels. The cherry tree never bore fruit for either side.
One reason for this, of course, was that Mrs May was never able to convince the EU that she had any hope of getting her ideas through parliament. Neither enough Tories nor enough Labor MPs would support her. And what was Sir Keir doing at the time? As shadow Brexit secretary, he said her negotiating aims were untenable because they did not include staying in the customs union. As he said in February 2018: “This is a critical time for the Prime Minister as the majority of Parliament does not support her approach to a customs union.” When she brought home the Irish backstop deal, which included staying in the customs union, he too opposed it.
Still, cheers followed at the Irish embassy this week, the Guinness flowed and Sir Keir’s “constructive” approach was praised. Whatever they say, politics is a tribal game where style trumps substance.
The labor path
On the subject of hypocrisy, a Labor MP at CER drinks repeated the folly that the new Prime Minister should be chosen from among those Tories who had the decency not to serve in Boris Johnson’s cabinet. I pointed out that Labor hardly applied the same type of purity test when they chose Sir Keir, given that he had campaigned to put Jeremy Corbyn in office. In return, I was rewarded with a wry smile and awkward silence.
Dirty deal with the SNP?
Labour’s dilemma, if they do become the largest party at the next election, is likely not to be Brexit or Corbyn. It will be what a deal to make with the SNP if the Scottish party holds enough seats to make or break a majority. A split is already looming. The left-wing position, articulated by MPs such as Clive Lewis, is to give the nationalists what they want and allow them to hold another referendum. But the centrists and unionists will want to dig in and deny the SNP’s bluff, offering them other concessions in return for a confidence and supply deal and threatening another election if they cling. Sir Keir’s face, the pressure to cave in to the SNP will be unbearable. We know he’s not exactly a man of principle.
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