Labour’s victory means we’ll have to get used to pressure on government over EU policy very different to what we’ve become used to, writes Anand Menon.
‘Nobody is ruling out Remain as an option’. These eight words, unscripted, and absent from the official transcript, resonated round the party conference hall and sparked a standing ovation. Six years on, with the speaker safely ensconced in 10 Downing Street, that audience might come to be slightly less approving of his thoughts on the subject.
Brexit was hardly discussed during the campaign. But insofar as it was, Labour’s stated ambitions were limited. Certainly, the new government intends to adopt a more positive tone on UK-EU relations – one already apparent in the warm exchange between Starmer and Ursula von der Leyen and during David Lammy’s trip to Germany, Poland and Sweden.
In practical terms, however, while a security treaty may be valuable; a veterinary agreement, support for touring artists, and a mutual recognition agreement for professional qualifications, while useful, represent little more than tinkering round the edges of the current trading arrangement. Anything more – single market or customs union membership most notably – have been explicitly ruled out. Indeed, Keir Starmer went further, stating he did not foresee the UK rejoining the single market in his lifetime.
But if the last few years have taught us anything, it’s that what a Prime Minister wants to do on Brexit and what they manage to do in the face of opposition can be two very different things.
Here, we need to pause and fight muscle memory. Because the problem does not lie with the European Research Group or any of those other Conservatives so practiced in the art of performative Brexit purity. When it comes to government policy, these people really do not matter anymore.
Rather, the pressures will come from elsewhere. First, from business. Following the referendum, business leaders were actively encouraged not to raise their concerns about Brexit in their meetings with ministers. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson responded ‘fuck business’ when told of some firms expressing fears about a no-deal exit from the EU. A government committed to selling Brexit as a success was never one amenable to public protests from firms or business organisations....
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