Latest news with #Remainers
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Are we entering the post-Brexit era?
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. As he unveiled his much-touted "reset" deal with the EU, Keir Starmer said it is time to move on from "political fights" and "stale old debates" about Brexit. Nearly 10 years on from the Brexit referendum, and more than five since the UK formally left the EU, the new agreement strengthens ties over areas including fishing, trade, defence and energy. Starmer's appeal to "common sense" and "practical solutions" may strike a chord with the public, but his "big bet" is that "nobody really cares" about Brexit any more, said the BBC's chief political correspondent Henry Zeffman. "This was the day the Brexit dream died," said the Daily Mail in an editorial, while The Express called it "a betrayal dressed up as a policy". Staunch Brexiteers will "blast" Starmer "on fisheries, rule taking and youth migration", while diehard Remainers "will argue it's a meek deal that hasn't gone far enough to repair the economic scars of Brexit", said Politico. But "this fight down the middle is one the prime minister's quite happy to pick", while the Conservatives and Reform UK, both of whom have described the deal as a "surrender", "risk sounding like broken records on Brexit". With this deal – coming in the same month that trade agreements were announced with the US and India – Starmer has managed the "impossible", said The Independent: "to have his cake and eat it". When Labour under Starmer "pivoted" in 2020, from campaigning for a second referendum to a policy of "make Brexit work", "nobody really took it seriously". But he has "succeeded where others failed and managed to break the Brexit conundrum". Despite the "upbeat rhetoric", some of the "most difficult issues to resolve have been pushed back into future negotiations" – including the shape of a youth mobility scheme, said The Times. The deal also "leaves a number of difficult questions unanswered", such as how much Britain will have to pay to access the new EU defence fund and to align with the EU food standards and energy trading system. But the government hopes that voters will warm to the tangible effects of a "reset" in relations with the EU, including cheaper food and energy, and a reduction of red tape for small businesses. What will "prove revealing over the coming days, weeks, and months" is how much Reform and the Conservatives decide to campaign around the idea of a Brexit "betrayal", said the BBC's Zeffman. If opposition to the deal becomes a "significant part of these parties' platforms, it will tell us that they believe there is in fact plenty of controversy yet in the decades-long debate over the UK's relationship with the EU". If that's right, it could thrust questions about Brexit "right back to the centre of political life. "But if Sir Keir is right that the bulk of the public simply wants as little friction with the EU as possible, then he could prove to be our first truly post-Brexit prime minister."
Metro
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Metro
Readers on speaking up for peace and the ins and out of Europe
Do you agree with our readers? Have your say on these MetroTalk topics and more in the comments. The UK government has finally spoken out about the atrocities that have been going on in Gaza and 'suspended' trade negotiations with Israel (Metro, Thu). Foreign secretary David Lammy called the military escalation in Gaza 'morally unjustifiable'. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Throughout this whole conflict, countries have been too frightened to say anything critical against Israel. Every night, I witness the slaughter of women and children in Gaza on the news and I feel sick, angry and ashamed that the UK and the rest of the world are allowing it to happen. The UK now has little influence on the world stage, and what we say and do is largely ignored, but we have a moral duty to oppose what Israel is doing in Gaza. Hopefully, this will embolden other countries with more influence to speak out and, more importantly, take action. JD, London The news stories and images we see about the tragic events unfolding in Gaza day in and day out are shocking and heart-rending. That these incidents are happening in the 21st century is simply unthinkable and are to be rightly condemned. It is quite right that the western countries including Britain have called for Israel to halt its military offensive in Gaza and lift the restrictions on allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza. Israel and its leaders will do well to stop the bombing and killing of innocent civilians with immediate effect and hold talks to get the hostages released. Hamas should also ensure that the hostages are released as quickly as possible. Enough is enough. The world right now needs peace, not war. Suresh Abboodass, London Why publish Leslie's letter (MetroTalk, Thu)? It's utter misinformation to say that the UK hasn't actually left the EU. Every day I have goods waiting at customs and every invoice I pay for the declaration would tell you otherwise. You've had years to do some research and understand more of what it all meant but you didn't bother did you, Leslie? Joe, London Had Britain, as Leslie claims, never left the EU, we would have had a vote in the 2024 European election and Britain would thus still be a rule maker. That we are now a rule taker is exactly what Remainers warned against Brexit bringing. Charles EL Gilman, Mitcham I find it ironic that Mick (MetroTalk, Wed) challenged people to name a benefit of Brexit then went on to name two in the very next sentence, specifically our new trade deals with Australia and New Zealand. Surely everyone can remember how we were repeatedly told by the Remain side that no one would want to sign trade deals with us, as we are too small and insignificant. Just one of their many predictions that turned out to be nonsense. And for those enjoying the announcement of Sir Keir Starmer's new deal/giveaway with the EU, enjoy it while it lasts because it's gong to get torn up in 2029 after the next election. Henry Walter, Hounslow I can really feel for the folk in the 26-floor block in Tower Hamlets with the broken lift (Metro, Wed). More Trending I live on the top (third) floor of a block in Croydon where the lift keeps breaking down. This is bad enough for all of us with heavy grocery shops to lug up five flights of stairs – and for those on my floor with little children it is even more difficult. We rely on our housing association for a prompt repair but there have been times when we have waited weeks. And even when the lift is repaired it has been known to break down again, a week or two afterwards. Penny Munden, Croydon Really enjoying your theatre coverage, guys. Here in London we are in the theatre capital of the world – it's what we do best, globally. Great to see this reflected in Metro – all the world's a stage. Mark, Staines To add to you irregular series of doctor jokes submitted by readers – a friend of mine broke his arm in three places. He went to A&E and the doctor told him not to visit those three places again. David Johnson, Worthing MORE: Monaco Grand Prix: Plenty of horsepower in the car park as F1 stars enjoy working from home MORE: The Metro daily cartoon by Guy Venables MORE: Europa League final: Rubbish game, scrappy goal but Tottenham won, so they don't give a monkey's
New European
19-05-2025
- Business
- New European
It's taken a Remainer to fix the Brexiteers' mess
With his long-trailed Brexit 'reset' on Monday, Keir Starmer sought to settle a long-term trading relationship with, but outside of, the European Union, which wouldn't need revisiting on a near-constant basis. Almost nine years after the UK narrowly voted to leave the EU, a strange political reality has emerged – and it is that Remainers are the only politicians taking Brexit seriously. For the sake of saving what remains of British exports, especially in food and drink, that meant coming to a long-term agreement on food safety checks at the border – which were not only leading to long queues, but also making exports near impossible for fresh meat and fish (the difficulties of exporting fishing catches have, funnily enough, been missing from Brexiteers' fish discourse). The UK similarly needed some certainty on accessing the EU's energy market, and working out in future how the UK could interconnect with it in turn – for the short-term, so the UK has certainty on how it can import electricity when we need it, but with the longer-term ambition of exporting energy when we have enough green generation in place. Inexplicably, energy cooperation – which is essential to the UK's future economic growth – has attracted barely a tenth of the column inches as has fishing, an industry which employs fewer full-time fishers than there are tattooists in the UK, but any long-term EU deal needed to explore these questions. Similarly, Starmer has at least laid the groundwork for defence and security cooperation, including exports of British defence products to the EU as it rearms, alongside youth mobility (which polls extraordinarily well, even among Brexiteers) and other issues. None of this is on terms that are as good as, let alone better than, the deal that the UK got as part of the EU – but a liveable deal has been reached that allows the UK to focus on other things and normalise relationships with our 27 nearest neighbours. Brexit can never be said to 'work', as even with this deal the UK economy will grow much more slowly than if we had not left, but Starmer and Labour have at least made the effort to make Brexit workable, to make it something the country can live with – and have given businesses certainty as to what the rules will be, if only for the next few rules, as the Tories and Reform have pledged to reverse them. In theory, this should have Remainers furiously up in arms – it is the kind of plodding compromise deal that makes reversing Brexit less likely, because settled new arrangements have been made. Brexiteers should be celebrating it, given they have had almost a decade to come up with something better, and have consistently failed. Had Rishi Sunak, a Brexiteer, somehow won last year's election, his deal would likely have looked almost identical to this one. Instead, inevitably, Brexiteers didn't even wait for the deal to be signed before they screamed betrayal. They did much the same when the government came to a trade agreement with the US last week and completed a deal with India – exactly the kind of Brexit freedom they supposedly campaigned for. The Brexit movement has become less a political ideology as a toddler's tantrum: they have no idea what they want, knowing only that it's not this. Remainers, despite accusations to the contrary, have generally been much more willing to compromise with reality than the Brexit diehards – most have accepted that a formal movement to rejoin the EU is likely decades away, and the best that can be hoped for was normalising trade relations and trying to get back to working constructively with the world's largest trading bloc. Many sensible people who voted Leave and came to regret it feel much the same. This is a particularly Starmerish deal. It is pragmatic, it has been got through dint of sustained hard work, and it is something almost no-one could truly love. It's the stuff of compromise, politics as the art of the possible – the German sociolgist Max Weber's 'slow boring of hard boards' in action. It is a mark of how flat-footed No 10 is politically that the Starmer of this week, heralding his new deal on the world stage and its role in letting Britain play its part internationally sounds like an entirely different PM to the one who spent last week engaging in relentless anti-immigration rhetoric. The groundwork was not laid, the messaging wasn't there, and there is probably no political win to be had here – Labour would have to be very optimistic to expect a poll bounce as a result of the UK-EU deal. It does, though, play to Starmer's strengths – adding to his credibility as someone who can get things done on the world stage. What needs to happen next is that the questions about Brexit and deals with Europe should flip. UK farmers and fishers can export now. Soon, young people should be able to live and work in Europe again. Erasmus is back on the cards. There is some certainty, which might even let businesses invest in the UK again. If Nigel Farage or Kemi Badenoch want the UK to go through the painful process of reopening all of this again, they should be forced to explain why – it is no longer enough to say 'not this'. Renegotiating all of this will cost time and money. They should explain what they would change, and how, or else be ignored. Farage will surely think he can capitalise on calling this deal, like everything before it, yet another Brexit betrayal. But played right, this deal could contain the seeds of his eventual downfall.
Spectator
19-05-2025
- Business
- Spectator
Starmer's EU ‘reset' risks pleasing no one
Keir Starmer has just wrapped up his press conference with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen. The Prime Minister sought to bang the drum for his EU reset, citing his three 'driving principles': more jobs, lower costs and enhanced border control. Starmer boasted that his deal ensures 'unprecedented access to the EU market, the best of any country outside of the EU or Efta', while ensuring Britain remains outside the single market and customs union, with no return to freedom of movement. The text of today's agreement is still being scrutinised – yet the risk is it ends up pleasing neither Remainers nor Brexiteers. Both the UK and EU have agreed to 'work towards' a youth mobility scheme, but there is no detail on a cap or timeframe. Britons will be allowed to use e-gates in the EU but the language is caveated, suggesting they are only to be used 'where appropriate'.
Daily Mail
18-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Like a teacher's pet, Starmer is a sucker for rules. Which is why I fear he will doom Britain to a sorry future as an EU satellite, warns ROSS CLARK
How wonderful that Britain will have an 'adult in the room' for tomorrow's summit to reset relations between the UK and EU, not an infantile and petulant leader like Donald Trump. That at any rate is what the Government, and 'enlightened' Remainer opinion, will want us to think. A more rational appraisal of the last few weeks would come to the opposite conclusion: that a Trump-like figure is exactly what we need in this situation – someone to lob a few grenades into the debating chamber, insult the other team and walk out of meetings (something which wouldn't be difficult for The Donald given his virulent dislike of the EU).
