Why Britain must NEVER rejoin the EU | Labour’s plot to reverse Brexit

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]Should we talk about one of the other um what one of the other leadership contenders is saying if we can even call him a leadership contender I mean his polling is so poor but Wes Streeting didn't waste any time um after resigning from Karma's cabinet before calling for the UK to rejoin the European Union. Um, partly people might suspect that this is to throw Andy Bernham off a little bit, to get him to clarify his comments, um, to almost perhaps get him to say that he does want to rejoin the EU in a leave seat if if that's the case. He hasn't fallen into that trap. But Tom, what have you made of this return of the Brexit wars 10 years on from when we voted? No, >> exactly. Very close to the 10 year anniversary, isn't it? Um, I think it's uh indicative of the fact that Labor has essentially given up on representing the working class. I think it's given up.

[00:00:47]It's got to it's finally come to terms with the fact that their new base is not to be found in those workingclass red wall or similar constituencies across the country and that it is within the university towns within the big cities amongst the sort of middle to upper middle class intelligencia who are their new base. They're still a class party.

[00:01:04]It's just the class has changed. That's and that is a recognition of that. I mean Brexit was the the thing which severed the long fraying tie between working-class communities and the Labor Party. They clearly made their stand during the referendum. They clearly made that sound afterwards when they tried to overturn the result. And now this conversation about rejoin is um another symbolic reminder that that's really where their heart is. Um to a certain extent this is about symbolism and vibes rather than substance. I mean the way in which someone like streeting has talks about a customs union. I mean no serious person in politics thinks that the Turkey model of EU entanglement is a positive one. like the idea that you would just be a member of the customs union and that this would be, you know, a positive economic vision for the country, but it's about what it symbolizes. We're these kinds of people, not like those kinds of people who used to vote for us and don't anymore. And I think it's it's on those terms that it's probably best understood.

[00:01:58]>> Yeah. I mean, it just suggests a party out of ideas. I mean, they haven't been able to grow the economy. They haven't been able to even though there are many things in place that are a result of Brexit, they've actually signed quite a lot of trade deals, which is quite interesting. But it's almost like the EU is the last refuge of the tired, clapped out, lack of vision politician.

[00:02:18]>> Yeah. It's almost a sort of I think an automatic reflex for Star that you know I think he probably feels, you know, warm and cuddly when he's hanging out with European leaders um and posing for a family photo. So I think there's a little bit of it which is that for StarMA but I as you say I mean I think look the frustration with Brexit for the for the public is that the the the newfound sovereignty that we won um hasn't been exercised to deliver the things that they care about right namely um getting control of the borders >> and and so you have to ask yourself you know if if if as the Labour Party they have absolutely no desire to use the sovereignty that we've fun to to genuinely deliver things that the country wants. No wonder they want to take us back into the the clutches of of Brussels because they just, you know, they don't seem they don't seem to have any desire to actually um exercise democratic self-governance, you know, which is what ultimately Brexit was all about, right? Um and you see this throughout the civil service, too. I mean, you know, frankly, you know, we've won back control over all sorts of areas, but but many civil servants, you know, I think would much rather we actually just gave those things back to Brussels and and let the the European bureaucrats deal with those things. So, you know, I think that's the problem.

[00:03:35]And and yes, I mean, you know, I did also make me laugh with Star's big reset speech. Um, you know, all he could really come up with was was nationalizing steel um and and a European student mobility program. And I mean, you know, it just it really was the sort of, you know, the last sort of vestigages of of the SAR administration on display >> and and it does seem that the arguments for rejoin are extremely weak. The economic arguments don't really add up.

[00:04:01]I mean, the UK has not um underperformed its peer countries like France and Germany. Of course, it hasn't been stellar. No one would no one would say that we're roaring ahead. Um, look at something like inflation. Actually, we've had less inflation than the EU um since since Brexit or even trade. Trade has increased since we left the EU, including trade with the European Union, funnily enough. So, it's not clear what exactly um the rejoining the single market, rejoining the customs union, what rocket boosters of growth it's going to put um under the UK economy.

[00:04:32]And I think people should be quite worried actually about some of the things that Starmer is signing us up to where we are going to be rule takers and having no say in in the rules and on things like agriculture, um, fisheries, um, energy, you know, those are those are areas where actually we need a government to grab them by the scruff of the neck where we are falling behind and they need serious reform, but instead we're going back to the the comfort blanket of of the European Union.

[00:04:57]>> Yeah. And the idea that the European Union would readmit us on the terms that we previously enjoyed is obviously for the birds as well. And also I take a bit of issue with the claims and lot of the discussion that the public have completely soured on Brexit. There is definitely a degree of demoralization particularly amongst Brexit voters because of the failure to deliver on shall we say the kind of broader vision implied in Brexit that it wasn't just about the act of leaving. It was also about properly taking back control of your borders, properly um you know reassessing the various ways in which EU rules and regulations had held us back and forging a new path. Um but Julian Jessup wrote a good substack on this about the the polling because you look at the headline numbers and it's like oh roughly in the region about 55% of people would support rejoining the European Union. But if you really dig down into it and when the polls actually put kind of specific questions to people you get very different results. For instance, if um I think this was more in common, asked voters, do you want kind of freer trade with the European Union?

[00:05:53]Practically everyone says yes. Most Brexiteers would say yes. Given the obstacles that were needlessly put in the place of trade by a very hard negotiating position from Brussels, but if you ask them, should we follow EU laws and regulations, it's a minority who would support that. Even Labour voters, it's something like 80% of them support um rejoining the customs union.

[00:06:12]But it's a fraction, a sliver, I think it's in the single digits of them who would support our tariff policy being dictated by anyone other than the British government, which of course is what being a member of a customs union with the EU would mean. So you layer on top of that the fact that, you know, Euro zone membership, who knows what else could be added into the mix if we were to go towards rejoining. The idea that this is a kind of clear-cut case um that the public have just souled on the whole idea I think is just completely for the birds and it would reopen all of those deep um questions about parties like Labor as to who who side they're actually on because the one of the reasons that they managed to pull off that very shaky but nevertheless significant majority last time around was they were man they managed to claw back some of those Brexit voters.

[00:06:55]They're never going to get anywhere near that if they even if they continue to talk about this issue, let alone act, you know, move seriously towards rejoining.

[00:07:03]>> Yeah. I mean, they were at pains to say that Brexit K said Brexit is safe in my hands, you know, and they they adopted the language of Brexit, talking about taking back control, whereas if they don't do that, then of course, I mean, it's already been clear from Karma's Brexit reset that they're, you know, willing to go back on that. And I think also, you know, it's worth thinking about how much worse the EU itself is as well as the terms we'd be joining. It it has changed a lot in the last 10 years.

[00:07:28]And some of the debates we've been having around something like net zero, well actually, you know, we might be able to elect a government that is going to water that down. But but if we were in the EU, that's now an EU level um requirement essentially. Or if you think about something like the um digital services act which means that we would have online censorship baked into any European Union agreement that that's quite terrifying and I think if you you know we had that debate then I think you see the numbers for the any enthusiasm for rejoining dissipate apart from among the hardcore remain block. Yeah, I think I think that's right. And I think also that the point on um economic performance is really worth um stressing, right? You know, I I was a Brexiteer. I was a quiet one because I was a civil servant at the time. Um but but snap indeed. And I I would probably be bullied if I I'd admitted it. But um the point is is that you know I do remember back then I did take seriously the the the some of the fear-mongering that that the um remain side were pushing because anyone who's you know serious about you know the economy and economic performance and and wanting to be wanting our country to be credible as an economic um uh uh power. Um of course is going to to to to be sort of concerned about some of these arguments that that you know our economy would take a hammering. And actually none of it really has come to pass. You know you know the the growth we have in this country is poultry. But but Germany and France are growing even more slowly. And actually if you look at the data Brexit doesn't show up at all in the data. It's basically invisible. So you know yes our economy um is is trundling along very slowly and there's all sorts of things going wrong there. But Brexit isn't the cause of that. And and as far as I can tell from really trying hard to understand remain argument, it's basically and weirdly, you know, this is coming from Labour people um like Ben Judah for instance has been on a bit of a war path making the remain case or rejoin case on on Twitter. He's David Lamy's former special adviser. It seems to be that the the economy was going absolute gang busters around 2014 2015 and we were on a path to basically not only overtake um our peer countries like France and Germany but to essentially be outgrowing the United States and you know what what are they saying that George Osborne and David Cameron had wound up with the absolute model economy and we screwed it up and we should we should apologize to Mr. Osborne or something? I I just don't buy that wasn't true.

[00:09:57]>> Yeah. Yeah. the the the argument doesn't frankly make sense, but there's all sorts of of of things that are just left unsaid by by those pushing for for us to to rejoin. I mean, for example, the 25 billion pounds or so that we would need to contribute to the to the EU budget, you know, where is that money going to come from? I mean, as it is, the guilt markets are having a meltdown at the level of debt we have in this country.

[00:10:18]So, I don't think we can borrow that money. So, what public services are they going to cut to pay for it, right? And and none of those questions are being answered at the moment. So I think fundamentally it's quite an unserious position.