AS Sir Keir Starmer sits in his crisp, white leather plane seat this morning and stares out over the Channel, he should remember his predecessors.
Barely reaching cruising altitude on the 45-minute hop to Brussels, he follows a long line of UK Prime Ministers who have made that journey to be told “non, nein, no” by so- called friends in Europe while ministers back home bicker.
Much of the Labour Party is split over Europe
GettyThere are growing tensions in Starmer’s already bruised Government as he seeks his so-called EU ‘reset’[/caption]
Although the last decade could have fooled anyone, Cabinet splits over the Continent are not just for Conservatives.
Long before the Tories’ David Cameron, it was Labour’s Harold Wilson who offered up a referendum on Europe in a bid to quell party quarrels — and neither lasted in office for long afterwards.
Now, although they deny it publicly, there are growing tensions in Starmer’s already bruised Government as he seeks his so-called EU “reset”.
The second-referendum fanboy bound himself to Brexit as the price for winning the election, and now hundreds of Labour MPs watch agog as Reform cements challenger status in their pro-Leave seats.
Lukewarm soup
They will not let No10 forget the manifesto commitment not to reverse Brexit.
Vocal critics of a second referendum like Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy share a Cabinet table with People’s Vote champions like Pat McFadden, while Foreign Secretary David Lammy does little to disguise his unreconstructed Europhilia.
No10 is preparing to “go hostile” on Reform leader Nigel Farage as he emerges as the greatest threat to a second Labour term, while large swathes of the party membership still want the PM to rejoin the EU bloc.
They’re led by Sir Sadiq Khan who unhelpfully won’t shut up about it, despite the London Mayor’s recent gift of a gong.
Meanwhile, Sir Keir’s naive hopes of a better deal with the EU simply because he is not Boris Johnson — or because he did all he could to undo the Leave vote — must surely now have evaporated like vapour from the back of the Prime Minister’s private jet.
Any attempt to fiddle with the divorce terms or, as Starmer wishes, forge a whole new separate side deal on defence, will come at a hefty price.
As the PM tucks into his lukewarm soup with the EU27 tonight, expect that to be hammered home in two dozen co-ordinated leaders’ speeches.
And just as many a British PM before Starmer has discovered, the crunch will come on the sacred EU commitment to free movement.
No10 is preparing to ‘go hostile’ on Reform leader Nigel Farage as he emerges as the greatest threat to a second Labour term
Harry Cole
They hate the fact we shut our doors to EU students and citizens.
And while they may dress it all up as a Youth Mobility Scheme, work placements for the under-40s, or special access for EU students in certain job sectors, what is clear is this will be their pound of flesh.
The flare has gone up from the Home Office — with Home Secretary Yvette Cooper unrelenting yesterday, warning that more arrivals is “not the right starting point for us at all”.
She has made it clear to the PM that such a move is incompatible with bringing down net migration — and however you spin it, hundreds of thousands of Europeans coming to work here would count towards labour statistics so it’s a non-starter for Cooper.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves, on the other hand, is keeping her cards close to her chest.
But Chancellors desperate for growth are too often tempted by the migration lever for a quick fix.
While Starmer is not the first PM to try to take on Europe with a divided Cabinet, it never tends to go well.
ReutersForeign Secretary David Lammy does little to disguise his unreconstructed Europhilia[/caption]
Neither side seems up for a protracted negotiation — but get ready for a few months of red lines, tunnels, leaks, briefings and endless Eurocrats willy-waving as they sniff another chance to punish Les Rosbifs for having the temerity to leave their little club.
And it’s already begun, with one particularly obnoxious briefing from an “EU diplomat” to The Times last week bragging that playing hardball “worked for us the first time around with Boris and will work for us again with Starmer”. But did it, really?
Downing Street dismiss this as negotiation foreplay, but frankly we all know Starmer is no Johnson.
Knife fight
Boris deselected members of his own party and held the gun of No Deal to the heads of not only the EU, but Parliament and Whitehall, in his efforts to force an acceptable zero-tariff, zero-quota trade deal through — in a way that his predecessor as PM, Theresa May, had three times tried and failed to do before being ejected from office.
The stakes are not as high this time, but Starmer could do worse than look at which recent PM actually managed to walk away from Brussels with something, by refusing to dance to the EU’s tune.
So far, Starmer’s team talk of buckets full of concessions — giving the impression they are bringing technocratic niceties to a knife fight.
Cameron discovered the hard way that this gets you nowhere, just as May found out the EU is more than willing to throw a national leader to the wolves before climbing down.
Enjoy your dinner, Sir Keir, but just remember it’s you on the menu back home if this all goes wrong.
ReutersChancellor Rachel Reeves is keeping her cards close to her chest regarding the EU[/caption]
GettyBoris deselected members of his own party and held the gun of No Deal to the heads of not only the EU, but Parliament and Whitehall[/caption]
A LITTLE birdie tells me Conservative Party bigwigs and senior staff to the Leader of the Opposition are holding a crisis meeting this afternoon, over the dire state of polling and empty coffers.
With the Tories now consistently in third place to Labour and Reform, one source whispered: “Panic stations!”
The party is so broke that shadow ministers have been told they can only hire advisers if they stick them on their own parliamentary payroll or privately find donations to pay for them.
HAS Two Tier Keir become Tier Four Keir?
The PM is facing VERY awkward questions today, as an explosive new book suggests he may have broken lockdown rules on Christmas Eve 2020.
Get In, by my brilliant Westminster colleagues Patrick Maguire and Gabriel Pogrund, reveals Sir Keir’s personal voice coach (yes, really) was at the then opposition boss’s side for a virtual press conference about Brexit that lockdown Christmas.
But unfortunately for Mr Rules, strict Tier 4 laws in place then meant it was illegal for anyone not working in “essential public services” or “direct Covid-19 response work” to travel to work.
There were no exceptions for voice coaches, however much Sir Keir needed one.
And remember this is the guy who once promised to resign if he was ever caught breaking the rules.
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