Keir Starmer, the British prime minister, has made the welcome announcement that he would seek closer alignment with the EU Single Market across sectors of the economy “where it made sense” during an interview with the BBC on Sunday.
Over the past few months, Starmer has been much more willing to blame the UK’s economic woes on Brexit, so this policy change is a logical next step in that political calculation. It is a deft move by the prime minister, even if what it means in practice still remains to be fully spelt out.
Prominent Brexiteers still maintain that the failure of the project lies with the implementation of the divorce rather than the original decision. This is specious reasoning, at best. The decision by the UK to leave its main trading bloc came with inevitable costs and without adequate contingency plans in place. The promised sunny uplands of post-Brexit Britain were a fantasy.
Just how significant the economic cost has been is now abundantly clear. However, Labour is now in power and is facing the political consequences, amid widespread discontent about the state of the economy. Closer alignment with the EU Single Market will generate higher levels of growth, but not on the scale needed to shore up the UK’s perilous fiscal position.
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Rejoining the EU Single Market – or seeking to do so, as the EU would have to agree – is not politically feasible for Starmer as that would mean accepting free movement of people. Migration is still a highly charged issue in the UK.
The prime minister has also ruled out negotiating a customs union arrangement with the EU, which could have significant potential economic benefits. He should, at some stage, revisit this decision, particularly as public opinion is on his side. Successive opinion polls show a growing majority of people think that Brexit was a bad idea that has damaged the economy.
The fact that this has not hit political support for one of Brexit’s chief supporters, Reform Party leader Nigel Farage, is part of the difficult political terrain which Starmer must now negotiate.
