PROOF YOU CAN’T TRUST STARMER ON BREXIT

As Sir Keir vows to re-write deal with EU ahead of meeting with Macron today, Tories warn he’ll surrender hard-won sovereignty

Keir Starmer was accused of a ‘Brexit betrayal’ last night after vowing to rewrite the UK’s deal with Brussels.

Ahead of talks with French president Emmanuel Macron today, the Labour leader said he wanted to secure ‘much better’ arrangements with the EU.

Sir Keir, who campaigned for a second referendum and supported the return of free movement, has previously told Brexit voters he would not seek ‘major changes’ to the deal struck by Boris Johnson.

And in an interview with the Financial Times he insisted he did not want to reverse the referendum result and was focused on trying to ‘make it work’.

But Tories warned Sir Keir could take Britain ‘back to square one’ while Brussels observers said a closer deal would be possible only by signing up to EU laws.

Downing Street ruled out a renegotiation, saying Rishi Sunak was focusing on ‘maximising opportunities’ outside the EU.

David Jones, a Conservative former minister, said Labour’s leader appeared to be intent on ‘unpicking Brexit’.

He added: ‘He is clearly cosying up to the EU and to Macron, who is the most Europhile member of a Europhile bunch, and who would not be seeing him unless he thinks he can get something out of Labour to his advantage.

‘My big concern with Starmer is that he is

preparing the ground to sign us up to perpetual alignment with EU standards.

‘We would become a rule-taker and lose the freedom to strike better trade deals around the world.

‘There is no doubt that free movement would also have to come back on to the table before the EU would consider a new deal. I’m surprised even Starmer thinks it’s a good idea.’

Craig Mackinlay, a Conservative member of the Commons European scrutiny committee, warned that Sir Keir would ‘betray’ Brexit if he won power.

‘This is the same Keir Starmer who called for a second referendum,’ he said.

‘He is someone who wants Britain to be in the EU. If he gets into No 10 then he will betray the ideals and advantages of Brexit. We will end up with more alignment with the EU, but no say over the rules – it would be the worst of both worlds.’

A Conservative Party spokesman said: ‘Seven years on from the referendum, Keir Starmer wants to take Britain back to square one on Brexit, reopening the arguments of the past all over again.

‘Keir Starmer backed Remain, then wanted a second Brexit referendum, yet now he says he accepts it.’

Sir Keir arrived in Paris last night with Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves ahead of talks at the Elysee Palace with President Macron.

Labour sources were tight-lipped about the agenda for today’s talks. But Sir Keir is expected to discuss both his hopes for fresh Brexit arrangements and his plan to create a new immigration framework with Brussels.

Last week he faced a backlash after suggesting he was willing to discuss accepting thousands of asylum seekers from the EU as a ‘quid pro quo’ for a deal that would allow the UK to return some Channel migrants to Europe.

Yesterday Sir Keir insisted Labour would not rejoin the single market or customs union but said the UK could get a ‘much better’ deal. ‘I do think we can have a closer trading relationship as well,’ he said. ‘That’s subject to further discussion.’

Sir Keir said he owed it to his children, aged 12 and 15, to get a better deal. ‘I’m not going to let them grow up in a world where all I’ve got to say to them about their future is, it’s going to be worse than it might otherwise have been,’ he said.

‘Almost everyone recognises the deal Johnson struck is not a good deal – it’s far too thin. As we go into 2025 we will attempt to get a much better deal for the UK.’

Downing Street said that Mr

Sunak would not reopen the trade and co- operation agreement brokered with Brussels in ‘any way, shape or form’.

A statutory review of the deal is due in 2025, but government sources said this would be focused on technical issues.

The PM’s spokesman said: ‘We’re not looking to relitigate the past or reopen it in any way, shape or form. Obviously there is a set statutory review period but beyond that we’re very much focused on maximising the opportunities it presents for the public.’

Brussels expert Wolfgang Munchau said Sir Keir’s plan was ‘based on a delusion of a similar kind, that it is possible to stay outside the single market and the customs union, and get a better deal’.

He added: ‘This is a political lie.’

Mr Munchau, director of the Eurointelligence website, said Sir Keir’s ‘repeated assertion that there is a better deal with the EU out there ... is simply not true’.

He added: ‘If the EU plays hardball, as it surely will, pressure will grow from inside the Labour Party for another referendum.’

Mike Gapes, a former Labour chairman of the Commons foreign affairs committee, welcomed Sir Keir’s push for closer ties.

But he warned the UK would not be able to have its cake and eat it – and said Labour would have to make major concessions to secure a closer deal. ‘Now comes the hard bit,’ he said. ‘The EU is treaty- and rules-based. So drop the cakeism. The UK will not be able to cherry pick our relationship.’

‘Won’t be able to cherry pick’

‘ The deal Johnson struck is far too thin. As we go into 2025 we will attempt to get a much better deal for ’ the UK Sir Keir Starmer yesterday

WHEN Keir Starmer claimed that he would not try to unpick Brexit if he became prime minister, this paper warned his words should be taken with a large pinch of salt.

Despite solemnly promising to respect the referendum result, he was at the forefront of the parliamentary chicanery to overturn it, led the disgraceful ‘People’s Vote’ campaign and plotted with European Union chiefs to foil our departure completely.

So how sincere was the Labour leader when he vowed not to drag the UK back into the ambit of Brussels? The answer, we learn unsurprisingly, is: ‘Not very.’

Sir Keir glibly speaks about negotiating a ‘much better’ deal, based on a ‘closer trading relationship’, if he wins power.

Best of luck with that! We know from the excruciating days of the Brexit talks that the EU is institutionally incapable of being reasonable. And, true to form, Sir Keir is squirmingly evasive about which of our sovereign rights he’d be ready to sacrifice.

But no one should be under any illusion… Brussels never gives without taking more, usually much more, in return.

Of course, Sir Keir insists Labour would not rejoin the single market and customs union. But can this evangelic Remainer really be trusted to stand up for democracy on behalf of 17.4million Leavers?

Or would he heed the Europhile ultras, Whitehall ‘Blob’ and big business clamouring for Britain to go back to shadowing the EU’s rules and regulations, as a prelude to full realignment? Only the most credulous amongst us could think the former.

While the Government has seemed depressingly reluctant to properly embrace it, Brexit has not been the economic disaster Sir Keir and his stooges gleefully claim.

Free from Brussels interference, we have signed exciting trade deals with some of the world’s most dynamic and fastest growing economies. Inward investment is booming. Britain has, so far, avoided a slump.

By contrast, the Eurozone teeters on the brink of recession. Germany, once its engine room, is on its knees. Far-Right parties are on the rise. The supposedly mighty Brussels project Remainers revere is imploding.

Yet Labour, dogmatically, is determined to tie its growth strategy more closely to a stagnating continent. Sir Keir either thinks pro-Leavers are too stupid to notice this betrayal of Brexit – or so disillusioned with the Tories they no longer care.