The constitution and EU relations minister delivered a major speech this morning setting out the framework for the government’s “Brexit reset”.
Nick Thomas-Symonds, a longtime close ally of the prime minister who resides in the Cabinet Office, revealed that the government’s negotiating position will be moulded by the interlinked imperatives of “prosperity, safety and security”. Thomas-Symonds referred to these as the government’s “pillars” — the prospect of strengthening which has impelled Britain back to the Brussels negotiating table.
The speech came after European Union officials confirmed last night that they will journey to Britain on 19 May to further flesh out the future details of the UK-EU relationship in a special summit.
Thomas-Symonds, who is expected to act as the government’s lead negotiator, vowed to approach talks with goodwill and in the spirit of mutual benefit. Speaking in Brussels, he declared that “The time for ideologically driven division is over, time for ruthless pragmatism is now.”
Keir Starmer, who pledged in his first speech as prime minister to govern “unburdened by doctrine”, wants to break the doom loop of culture war pronouncements that characterised his predecessors’ approach to UK-EU negotiations. The upcoming talks, ministers argue, will reflect the strict seriousness Labour has restored to the heart of British governance and politics.
Not everyone has received the memo.
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Questioned on the government’s Brexit “reset” this morning, Nigel Farage argued that the enthusiasm with which Starmer has approached negotiations shows he is a “rejoiner at heart”. The Reform UK leader insisted that the meetings held between UK and EU government officials this week, ahead of the May summit, are “completely unnecessary” and “alarming.”
Speaking to Radio 4’s Today programme, Farage said: “That was an act of humiliation. It was completely unnecessary, but Starmer went along with it.”
But when challenged on the current status of the UK-EU relationship, as set out in the Brexit deal negotiated by ex-prime minister Boris Johnson, Farage admitted it needed “improving”.
“Well, I think the deal that was negotiated by the Johnson government wasn’t a very good one. We can improve on that”, he asserted. But Farage refused to describe in detail how a Reform government would approach negotiations.
The faster Reform rises in the polls, the more scrutiny will be applied to Farage’s lack of policy detail. YouGov, in a poll released yesterday evening, now places Reform ahead of both the Labour and Conservative parties on 25 per cent — one and four points in front respectively.
That said, an arguably more significant poll at this stage in the electoral cycle was released by Ipsos this morning on what voters perceive to be the UK’s diplomatic priorities. The survey indicates that nearly half (47 per cent) of Britons view Europe, as a trading and diplomatic partner, as most important compared to the US (21 per cent) or the Commonwealth (15 per cent).
It comes after a YouGov survey, published to coincide with the fifth anniversary of Brexit last week, recorded that just 30 per cent of Britons now say it was right for the UK to vote to leave the EU in 2016. More than six in 10 Britons (62 per cent), according to YouGov’s findings, say that Brexit has so far been more of a failure — against just 11 per cent who feel that it has been more of a success.
Reform and Farage, such findings suggest, are simply on the wrong side of public opinion when it comes to Brexit.
The Conservative Party’s recent rhetoric fares little better. Marking its fifth anniversary, shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel said Britain had “reaped the benefits” of Brexit and — like Farage — warned voters of the government’s alleged attempts to “drag us back into the EU’s grasp”.
“This Labour government, driven by socialist ideology and blind to the will of the people, is determined to dismantle Brexit and drag us back into the EU’s grasp”, Patel said.
She added: “The Conservatives will not stand by and allow this betrayal to happen—we will fight them every step of the way.”
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The Conservatives, it would seem, want to refight the Brexit war — despite the fact that doing so will highlight the party’s own failures from 2016-2020 and beyond. Indeed, Kemi Badenoch has already publicly admitted to these “mistakes”, scorning past Conservative governments for announcing “that we would leave the European Union before we had a plan for growth” in a major speech last month.
But not only this: Patel’s comments suggest Badenoch plans to engage in this war using the exact same rhetoric and attacks that characterised the Conservative Party’s approach throughout the 2016-2020 period. The shadow foreign secretary, one of the best-known and least popular politicians in the country (having served as home secretary from 2019-2022), stands ready at the vanguard.
In recent days, Badenoch herself has set the government “five Brexit tests” (which worked so well for Jeremy Corbyn as opposition chief). She wants “no backsliding on free movement”, no new money to be “paid to the EU”, as well as “no reduction in our fishing rights”, no rule-taking and no “compromise on the primary of NATO”.
This strategy invites the question, posed repeatedly in this newsletter, that Badenoch has shown little sign of confronting: how are the Conservatives supposed to signal that they have changed, while addressing old issues using the same stale and overly performative rhetoric? In other words, the louder Conservatives shriek about Brexit betrayals, the clearer the signal the party is not on the path of redemption.
Badenoch, despite her insistences to the contrary, has yet to demonstrate genuine intellectual leadership by saying something, well, new. She continues to rely on the political instincts that got the Conservatives into this mess. And by so relentlessly ploughing old, barren political ground, the Conservative leader risks appearing devoid of ideas.
Brexit, in the end, will enliven Reform-Conservative competition — as old scores are settled between Farage and his Tory foes. Keir Starmer will hope that their feverish battles, and resultantly escalating criticism of him, strike a favourable contrast with his avowedly “pragmatic” Brexit reset strategy.
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‘I hope Keir Starmer will express the UK’s total solidarity in his meeting with the Danish prime minister today. The UK has a proud history of standing with our allies when their sovereignty is threatened, and we must do the same with Denmark now.’
— Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey urges Keir Starmer to express “total solidarity” with Denmark when he has dinner with the Danish PM, Mette Frederiksen, tonight.
Now try this…
‘Ex-Tory MP joins Ukraine military to support war effort’
Via BBC News.
‘Is Labour still a party of the working class?’
The NS’ Ben Walker asks. (Paywall)
‘What can the Conservative Party do that Reform UK can’t? Our survival depends on finding an answer’
Peter Franklin writes for ConHome.
On this day in 2022:
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