Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer (Stefan Rousseau/PA)
(Picture: PA Wire)In 2016, Keir Starmer felt so strongly about the Brexit referendum that he quit his role as a shadow cabinet minister under Jeremy Corbyn.
A few months later he returned to the Labour frontbench as shadow Brexit secretary and spent the next four years campaigning to mitigate the result which he described as “catastrophic”.
He campaigned against a no-deal Brexit, as well as for a second referendum to give the people a “confirmatory vote” on any deal with Brussels.
Yet, Starmer has now made clear that the Labour party neither seeks to nor intends to reverse Brexit, nor soften Boris Johnson’s hard Brexit by returning to the single market.
Here is everything Keir Starmer has said about the Brexit redress.
What did Keir Starmer say about Brexit and the Labour Party?
In a speech on Monday, Starmer was thrown back into the Brexit debate, by ruling out any return to the single market or custom’s union, but arguing he could remove trade and travel barriers as prime minister because the EU would trust him.
Starmer pledged to tackle the “fatberg of red tape and bureaucracy” caused by Johnson’s Brexit deal, casting himself as an “honest broker” able to reach better compromises on key areas of disagreement with the EU such as the Northern Ireland protocol.
Although both sides wanted to reduce trade barriers between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, the government’s approach had “eroded” trust in the UK, Starmer told the Centre for European Reform thinktank.
“Labour will change that,” he argued. “We will be the honest broker our countries need. We will get the protocol working and we will make it the springboard to securing a better deal for the British people.”
However, the Labour leader argued that the big questions over EU membership, namely over the single market, customs union and free movement of people, were “arguments of the past” that could not now be revisited.
Starmer also stressed that that any debate on rejoining the EU would jeopardise public faith in politics, adding: “So let me be very clear: with Labour, Britain will not go back into the EU. We will not be joining the single market. We will not be joining a customs union.”
What has Keir Starmer said in the past?
June 2016
“The EU referendum result was catastrophic for the UK, for our communities and for the next generation.” – Starmer’s resignation letter to Jeremy Corbyn.
With sadness & regret, I have resigned as shadow home office minister: Brexit has changed the challenge ahead. pic.twitter.com/l9NWXCh9zN
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) June 27, 2016
June 2018
In June 2018, the Labour Party rejected an amendment to the withdrawal bill, which would keep Britain in the European Economic Area (EEA) and the single market, with Starmer promising closer links to the EU, and promising to negotiate a version of free movement.
The EU rejected it as “cakeism”, claiming the four freedoms that come with the single market - of goods, capital, services and people – were not “divisible”.Sept 2018
In September at a party conference, Starmer delighted many by saying: “Nobody is ruling out remain as an option.”
February 2019
Starmer vowed that remain would be a choice on a second referendum, giving voters the choice of a “credible leave deal and remain”, while speaking on the BBC’s Today programme.
June 2019
After the European parliament elections, which put Labour third behind the Brexit party and Lib Dems, he again showed his support for remain.
“In the aftermath of the local elections and particularly the EU elections, there are many in the Labour party who feel we need to be very clear about a second referendum and about making the case for remain,” he said.
“That’s certainly what I’m advocating, discussions are going on at the moment, I hope we can resolve it pretty soon, and that will be a material step in the right direction as far as I’m concerned.”
January 2021
After the hard Brexit deal struck by Lord Frost, Starmer abandoned the commitment to free movement of people which he had made in the Labour leadership contest.
“I don’t think that there’s scope for major renegotiation. We’ve just had four years of negotiation. We’ve arrived at a treaty and now we’ve got to make that treaty work,” he said.
June 2022
Speaking at the Centre for European Reform, Starmer said: “There are some who say: ‘We don’t need to make Brexit work – we need to reverse it.’
“I couldn’t disagree more.
“Because you cannot move forward or grow the country or deliver change or win back the trust of those who have lost faith in politics if you’re constantly focused on the arguments of the past.”
