The former Brexit chief negotiator Lord Frost has said he believes the Labour Party leadership will bring the UK into closer union with the EU, saying Keir Starmer ‘wants to get as close’ to rejoining as possible.
But Lord Frost also criticised the government, saying it had done a lot less than it really should have to reap the benefits of Brexit.
Speaking to GB News, Lord Frost said:
“I think [Keir Starmer] wants to get as close to [rejoining the EU and the single market] as possible.
“Possibly he won't with a stroke of the pen join the single market on day one, but he's already admitted in the manifesto that he wants a Food and Agriculture veterinary deal, which will require subordination to EU laws.
“We heard from Rachel Reeves this morning that they wanted a chemicals deal - that's a big industry in this country not mentioned in the manifesto at all.
“And this is what we can expect to see. Keir Starmer, Rachel Reeves, all the people around them, they think we ought to be part of the EU and they can't stop themselves floating new ideas.
“It's a silly argument, because quite possibly, you can't you couldn't find somebody who votes on those grounds. But that's not the point. What people voted about was - do you want your law set in this country or in another country, and that was what was at stake whether it was immigration, whether it was chemicals, whether it was anything else. And we had a clear answer to that question.
“Rachel Reeves, Keir Starmer and others are quite happy with having our laws in part set in other countries, and that's the problem.
“This is a settled vote and we are hardly at the beginning of our life as a country outside the European Union. We've only been outside for four years.
“If the Labour government sticks to the arrangements that we negotiated with very good agrarian arrangements, then perhaps we will see benefits but unfortunately, I don't think that's what they are going to do.”
