Britain’s relationship with the European Union was not a prominent issue in national debate when Sir Keir Starmer became prime minister, and Downing Street has striven to keep it that way. Labour strategists have seen Europe as a fissile topic, and Sir Keir’s opposition to Brexit in the 2016 referendum as a liability with swing voters. The prime minister has moved Britain closer to Europe, but in timid increments. The summit that formally “reset” relations early this year was long on statements of ambition, but short on substance. The government’s private recognition that economic logics impel Britain back into a European orbit has been in constant tension with fear of making that case in public.
The balance now appears to be shifting. In a speech on Wednesday, Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Cabinet Office minister responsible for EU relations, made the argument for closer regulatory alignment with Brussels in newly combative terms. The government is negotiating an agreement that would eliminate costly checks and licence requirements for food and drink exports to the continent. Mr Thomas-Symonds expanded his advocacy for that plan into an attack on Conservatives and Reform UK for peddling “snake oil” and willing Britain to fail by denying the need for closer EU cooperation.
