Labour came to power with no big idea for relations with EU, says former top diplomat

Ivan Rogers said Labour came to power ‘unprepared’ without ‘a serious, thought-through set of propositions’. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA

Labour arrived in power with no big idea on the UK’s future relationship with the EU, a former British ambassador to Brussels has said.

Ivan Rogers, Britain’s EU ambassador from 2013 to 2017, said Labour presented “a ragbag of issues” on the EU in its manifesto, which did not “remotely measure up to the challenge of the times” and would “make no measurable difference to the UK macroeconomy”.