"Under Labour, we will be outside the EU but will work closely on partnership, trade, security and more with our friends and partners in the EU," says Bill Rammell
Bill Rammell was the Labour MP for Harlow from 1997 until 2010
“S**t, we’ve got no plan. We haven’t thought about it. I didn’t think it would happen. Holy crap, what will we do?” According to Prime Ministerial chroniclers Anthony Seldon and Raymond Newell, that was how an “ashen-faced” Boris Johnson reacted on June 24, 2016, after the result of the Brexit referendum had been declared.
Johnson once PM then lied about his Brexit deal, saying to the DUP at its conference he would never agree to a deal which involved a border in the Irish sea, when that is what his Brexit agreement with the EU emphatically stipulated.
Sunak’s Windsor framework was more pragmatic and an improvement. But still sub-optimal.
And what about the trade deals which were the great opportunity of Brexit? Still nothing with India, nothing with the US. And those deals which have been agreed upon are mostly cut and paste jobs of EU trade deals. So much for sovereignty and taking back control.
And because of Brexit, we will be operating with an economy three to five per cent smaller than before we left the EU. For delusional Tory Brexiteers, these are the cold, hard facts of life.
But the EU still accounts for 42 per cent of the UK’s exports of goods and services and 50 per cent of UK imports. In terms of people movement, it’s also the UK’s most significant neighbour. The EU still matters to us.
But there is no going back on Brexit. This Labour Government will not return the UK to the EU, the Single Market, or the Customs Union.
As much as I might wish it, it won’t happen. Because Brexit shattered Labour’s electoral coalition of the working class and middle class.
Keir Starmer has put that coalition back together at our recent election, but he knows any move to rejoin the EU would spell political disaster for Labour.
Does that mean on the EU we will get treaties by the back door? No. But it does mean a closer and better relationship with the EU, a reset of our relations with the EU, shared agendas all because it is massively in our country’s interests. And a clear majority of people in our country support this.
By 55 per cent to 31 per cent, British people according to polls believe Brexit was wrong, but they don’t want it reversed. They do want a better deal and better working with the EU.
So, this Labour Government wants a structured dialogue, with regular Ministerial meetings, with the EU and EU member States.
Such regular dialogues already exist with the US, Canada, Australia, Japan, even China for God’s sake. So of course, we need regular dialogue with our closest neighbours, with whom we still do over 50 per cent of our trade.
The Government will use the 2026 UK/EU trade agreement review to seek and establish a closer trading relationship with the EU in business, veterinary compliance, professional services, innovation, research and more.
The Government will rightly seek border and migration co-operation with the EU to stem the flow of illegal migrants.
The Government will seek systematic co-operation with the EU by establishing a UK/EU defence and security pact to work together on logistics, cyber security and our mutual strategic security interests. More than ever important if Trump is re-elected, bringing a wrecking ball to NATO and our mutual security.
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And this Labour Government will end the self-defeating, delusional Tory mindset which blames every problem we face on foreigners.
Under Labour, we will be outside the EU but will work closely on partnership, trade, security and more with our friends and partners in the EU.
Labour will seek the kind of relationship respected Brexiters like Daniel Hanam sought during the Referendum campaign, where he talked of the UK after Brexit being part of a greater European Common Market.
And it will be a relationship which serves us so much better than the chaos which the Conservative delusional Brexiteers inflicted on us.
