A softer Brexit would be good for Britain but Labour’s leader is unlikely to win an election with that as his policy
After whipping his MPs to support Boris Johnson’s bad deal, and then taking a vow of silence as a repenting remainer, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has spelled out how he would make Brexit “work”. This is good news. No amount of flag-waving can hide the damage being inflicted on the economy by Brexit, or the parliamentary inability to check ministerial power grabs. On Monday Sir Keir and the party’s Scottish leader, Anas Sarwar, made important speeches to address how Labour would deal with the constitutional and economic challenges that Brexit posed.
Sir Keir’s plan dealt with the acute problems the country faced. He was right to say Labour’s priority was to sort out the Northern Ireland protocol with an agri-food deal to remove most checks on trade. Labour’s leader ought to be thanked for saying that mutual recognition of professional qualifications must be negotiated; that Britain should be in EU science programmes; and that visa-free travel for musicians needs to be restored. The EU would be more conciliatory to a government it can trust. Sir Keir’s plans represent a pragmatic policy rather than the more revolutionary one sought by some pro-Europeans.
