The Conservatives want another fight with the EU: how should Labour respond?

Exasperated, exhausted, angry. These are some of the words that I suspect come to mind for Labour activists and voters when Brexit is mentioned. Many of us wearily read the reports that prove beyond doubt that Brexit has set us back and more importantly, we see the impact in our own communities: a 6% rise in food prices that can be directly attributed to leaving the EU; a £31bn hit to the UK economy over the last five years; and a 15% fall in exports, causing countless small UK businesses to fail. All while the gap between the North and South grows wider still. Leaving the EU has exacerbated our divides, not healed them.

For a while, the Tories avoided talking about Brexit. We were told it was ‘done’ and everything else was the fault of Covid. The advent of the Northern Ireland protocol bill brings our relationship with the EU firmly back into the spotlight. But why are the Conservatives threatening to rip up their own deal?

They are not doing it for the economy in Northern Ireland. Thanks to its de facto place in the single market, the Northern Irish economy is growing faster than that in England, Scotland or Wales. Boris Johnson and Liz Truss are not acting out of loyalty to the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), either. The DUP did not vote for the deal in the first place, but were ignored as Johnson basked in his new majority. This entire bill is an exercise in Conservative Party management, an opportunity to galvanise the party faithful and pick a fresh fight with the EU.

Keir Starmer has long seen the trap. While he has made it clear that Labour will vote against the proposed bill, on the basis that it breaches international law, he and the shadow cabinet have been disciplined in repeating the message that Brexit will not be reversed and Labour has no interest in rehearsing old arguments. Now is the time for Labour to move the argument forward, by taking three clear steps:

1. Make an early manifesto pledge that Labour will not apply to rejoin the EU in its first term in power. This is clearly going to be our position at the next general election, so is a commitment the party can make now.

Any proposal to rejoin the EU would consume a first-term Labour government and play into the hands of the Conservatives. Even if it were politically viable at home, it is inconceivable that all 27 EU member states would welcome back the UK as a full member with open arms after the pain of the last six years.

By taking rejoin off the table for a first term, the Labour leader can shut down the ‘Brexit question’ and give himself the space to make progress in defining what our future relationship with the EU should be.

2. Set out priority areas for co-operation with the EU on scientific research, climate change and energy security. Labour can and should say that we want a closer relationship with the EU than the Conservatives.

Top of the list should be scientific research. At the time of writing, 143 UK-based recipients of European Council funding are in doubt about the future funding of their programmes. In the words of a senior scientist at the Francis Crick Institute: “It’s all nationalist stuff, not about the science.” It is totally self-defeating for the UK to be outside of programmes like Horizon Europe. We can be clear that a Labour government would make it about the science again.

Out of the misery of Vladimir Putin’s war, we need to take the opportunity to work together on pan-European initiatives that improve our energy security and invest at scale in renewable technologies and infrastructure. It is in all of our interest not to be reliant on importing gas from Russia or the Middle East and the closer we work with the EU, the faster we will get there.

3. Commit to seeking a stronger and closer trade relationship with the EU. Labour can and should signal that it wants to look anew at a closer customs partnership with the EU, to help UK exporters who have been so badly hit by extra costs and bureaucracy post Brexit. In the same spirit, we should work with the EU on greater harmonisations of standards – so that our service economy is as protected as it can be from being outside the single market.

We can’t rely on Brexit being ‘done’ at the next election. Labour can avoid the trap of replaying the ‘in-or-out’ argument, but can still have the confidence to set out how we will work more closely with the EU in the future. That is the balance I think us weary pro-Europeans need to strike.