Ten years on from the UK’s vote for Brexit, and five years since the divorce was made official, the blow is still keenly felt by many who backed the losing side. Particularly in the governing Labour Party, many erstwhile Remainers continue to be tempted by the EU’s siren song—and see Andy Burnham’s ascension as their chance to put rejoining back on the table.
After all, it was only last year that Burnham (then the mayor of Greater Manchester) said at a party conference, “I want to rejoin. I hope in my lifetime I see this country rejoin the European Union.” And it was only this past May that Wes Streeting (whom Burnham has just appointed as defense secretary) declared that “Britain’s future lies with Europe—and one day, back in the European Union.”
For now, it seems that Burnham will continue with Starmer’s approach to Europe: “resetting” relations to slowly bring Britain closer to Brussels, but without joining any EU institutions like the Single Market or Customs Union, and without signing up for “freedom of movement” (that most toxic of all EU policies). But had Burnham not entered Downing Street unchallenged—and had there been a full Labour leadership contest—there is little doubt that reversing Brexit would have been near the top of the agenda.
This may appear to make little sense. Voters, whether they backed Leave or Remain, are now overwhelmingly in favour of putting the Brexit years behind. For almost a decade, British politics was consumed by the Europe question. Revisiting that debate, and reopening the deep wounds it left, seems almost guaranteed to derail any sitting government.
Even if the pro-EU side prevailed, the process of rejoining would likely resemble that of leaving, dominating the parliamentary timetable and squeezing out other priorities. The negotiations could grind on for years. And at the end, chances are good the UK would end up with a worse deal than the one it had before we left. On top of that, the government would sign away sovereignty and control over critical areas, from immigration and trade to social policy and the environment (although, as we’ll come to later, the cynics in Labour might see this as a positive).
Still, practicalities aside, could a “Rejoin” platform be an election-winning prospect? Recent polling suggests a narrow majority of Britons favor returning to the EU. This isn’t so surprising, after a decade in which Remainers blamed anything and everything on Brexit, from the UK’s chronic economic sluggishness to the Covid-19 pandemic. (The UK’s official Covid inquiry began with officials pointing the finger at Brexit.) Boris Johnson’s Tories may have delivered Brexit, but they failed both to capitalize on the newly repatriated powers and to defend leaving as a matter of principle.
But more granular polling on which sovereign powers voters would be prepared to hand back to Europe tells a different story. There is overwhelming hostility to giving the unelected bureaucracy in Brussels a say over essentially any major policy area. Indeed, if Brexit were put to another referendum, I’d pity the Rejoin side tasked with making the case for the return of freedom of movement.
Of course, we should never assume that what the majority wants—strong borders, a sovereign democratic nation—matters all that much to Labour activists. What’s more, winning a majority is ever less essential to gaining political power, thanks to our fragmented multi-party politics. As the tension between the working class and the liberal middle class—the pillars of Labour’s electoral base—continues to intensify, many party elites may take the chance to dump the former, with their socially conservative, pro-Brexit views, and double down on the latter.
A Rejoin platform would alienate many working class voters, but could allow Labour to win even middle-class, liberal-left voters and young university graduates away from the Lib Dems and the Greens. It may even help to coax those parties’ leaders into a coalition government, in the highly likely event that Labour loses its parliamentary majority after the next election. Reversing Brexit would end any pretence that the Labour Party is still a party for people who labor, but it may just about be enough to secure another term in office.
An even more cynical explanation for the reluctance to let go of the EU is that many, perhaps most, senior Labour figures would actually relish their loss of sovereign control. Rejoining the EU would mean policies like open borders could be imposed by the backdoor, in defiance of public opinion. As an EU member state, the UK would not only be required to open its doors to all EU residents; it would also have to sign up to mandatory quotas for asylum-seekers. This would allow Labour to pursue the maximalist immigration policy that many in the party clearly want, while being able to wash their hands of all responsibility.
It’s the same story with Net Zero. The UK’s extreme climate policies are facing opposition like never before, thanks to their ruinous effects on energy prices. But should Britain rejoin the EU, decarbonization targets would have to be gold-plated. Again, left-wing Labour notables like Ed Miliband (Burnham ‘s choice as foreign secretary) would get the climate action they want without having to own these policies in the eyes of voters.
Other things that Labour loves and the public doesn’t include online censorship (via the EU’s Digital Services Act) and transgender self-identification (the EU has fined Hungary for its dissent against children changing gender, while EU candidate country Montenegro has been ordered to pass “trans rights” into law by Brussels). Another benefit of EU membership would be to “Reform-proof” these policies; so when Labour is chucked out of power, future governments are precluded from undoing them.
Would Labour get away with this? Probably not. The Brexit vote itself told us that the public was tired of their leaders abdicating responsibility, passing the buck to Brussels and shielding major policies from democratic input. But the party has few avenues left if it wants to reshape Britain in its green, woke, and technocratic image.
Rejoining the EU—and circumventing the pesky voters—might be Labour’s best bet for imposing its deeply unpopular vision on the nation.
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