Labour leadership crisis reignites debate on rejoining the EU

The PM is promising to strengthen EU ties at a time when the eurosceptic Reform party is on the rise.

Labour’s emerging leadership contest is reopening the EU debate. But if we want to rejoin, Britain needs a more European voting system firstNowhere is an anniversary more relished than in newspapers. As we approach the 10-year mark since Britain voted for Brexit, countless column inches would no doubt have been reserved for this purpose anyway. Yet the prospect of a Labour leadership contest, at a time when polls are showing four-fifths of the party’s voters at the last election and an even higher proportion of its members want to reverse that June 2016 referendum decision, is transforming what might have merely been melancholic reflection into a more active debate.Keir Starmer last week made a belated nod to one of his party’s deepest desires by saying that he, too, wants to put the UK back at “the heart of Europe”, even if it was still unclear exactly what he meant. Then Wes Streeting sought to revive faltering ambitions to be the next prime minister with a call for full re-entry into the EU, although he was similarly vague about when that might happen. Meanwhile, Andy Burnham was busy rowing back from a previously expressed hope of rejoining at some undisclosed point in his lifetime, perhaps because he won’t get a shot at Downing Street unless he first wins next month’s byelection in Makerfield, where a majority supported Brexit a decade ago.Tom Baldwin is the author of Keir Starmer, The Biography Continue reading...

The uncertainty surrounding Keir Starmer’s political future has reopened a debate Labour had tried hard to avoid: Britain’s long term relationship with the European Union. Starmer himself had already shifted considerably towards closer cooperation and dynamic alignment with the EU. Some potential future Labour leaders are now going further still, openly speculating on the possibility […]

The revolt against Prime Minister Keir Starmer has reignited debate about reversing Brexit — nearly 10 years after the UK voted to leave the EU. Alex Wickham explains. (Source: Bloomberg)

The thorny question of whether Britain should unwind a decade of estrangement from the European Union is resurfacing as the Labour Party starts to imagine a future beyond Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Two key figures have emerged as potential challengers after a series of political body blows that have left Starmer’s leadership in crisis, and the spectre of rejoining the EU was creeping back into the debate. Wes Streeting, who resigned from Starmer’s government as health secretary last week,...

The development follows heavy losses by the party in local elections earlier this month to the rightwing Reform U.K. and the leftist Green Party.