He points to reports from Times columnist Patrick Maguire, said to be 'well connected' with the Labour establishment, that Starmer will try to base the new relationship on a “privileged partnership” with Brussels, a phrase apparently used by Jaques Delors who died last week (disgracefully with nobody from the UK government in attendance).
Apparently, Maguire maintains that means "aligning where 'interests overlap' but not seeking single market membership 'by stealth' since Labour believes it can shake the UK from its economic torpor via domestic reforms." This looks pretty similar to the Tory idea to me.
An anonymous EU diplomat that Foster has spoken to calls it “affable cakeism” and it’s another good phrase but it simply means cakeism without the histrionics. It’s still cakeism. We still seem to want what we had before - privileged access to the single market - without the money or the obligations.
Foster says this is “driven by a desire (which is not unique to Labour) to shy away from the harder choices presented by Brexit in order not to upset domestic political audiences, and a general woolliness around the nuts and bolts of trade.”
Yes, quite. To me, it's not just the inability to face up to the harder choices, it is the pretence that either there are none or they are actually the boundless 'opportunities' of Brexit which the government has so far mysteriously shied away from taking up.
Starmer is going to set off for Brussels bearing a big olive branch in the hope they will look more kindly on him because he doesn’t thump the table, shout, get angry or sulk, and I’m sure that will be welcomed. But it won’t make any real difference.
When Tory governments have faced the same hard-nosed attitude from Brussels about the limitations of the divisibility of the four freedoms etc, they have invariably fallen back on acrimony and ideology because the pressure from their own backbenchers in the ERG and the other anti-EU factions was always NOT to offer any compromise. Those forces were pulling May, Johnson, Truss and Sunak irresistibly AWAY from a closer relationship, whether they wanted one or not.
Some were more susceptible to the pressure than others, but in the end, they all did what was politically prudent. There was also pressure from industry and the more pragmatic MPs to resist but this came sotto voce and was weak compared to the Euroscepticism that has taken over the Tories.
But Foster misses a crucial point. Starmer’s problem will be the absolute reverse of the last five Tory prime ministers. He will be driven by forces from the opposite direction, from a parliamentary party, trade unions and a membership which is hugely pro-EU. Foster says businesses shouldn’t expect Starmer to ride to their rescue, but this is precisely what they will demand and more importantly, they will see no reason why he can't deliver it.
Starmer himself will be the only person in government standing in the way of offering a compromise and blocking reform of a policy which he personally and his party campaigned against in 2016. How long will that last? This is why the Brexiteers fear a Labour victory.
What business in the UK will begin to ask for is a much closer relationship with the EU and when it becomes obvious that the only practical route which is guaranteed to work is membership of the single market, they will demand that too.
And let us be honest, they won't be asking for anything which is politically explosive among the population at large. The EU single market isn't the poll tax or the Iraq war. It is not an impossibility. In fact, it's a policy which a majority want to see. The fact that I am writing this seems crazy, a political leader with aspirations to lead the nation has to be forced to offer a policy that a majority of voters find perfectly acceptable and desirable. This is where Brexit has got us.
Starmer wants economic growth and the best way to do that would be to stop the haemorrhaging of the wealth producers, haul up the drag anchor, release the parking brake and jettison the single policy which is causing so much damage. It isn't difficult, politically or economically.
Industry will demand frictionless trade and as I said, they won't understand why Starmer can't make it happen and, once in Downing Street, neither will Starmer.
It's a no-brainer.
