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The party’s high command asks Labor MPs not to focus on the problems caused by Brexit by asking questions in parliament, dealing with the media or posting on social media, according to sources in the parliamentary party.
After a week in which Labor leader Keir Starmer delivered an important speech on how the country should rebuild the economy and reduce inequality without once mentioning Brexit, relations with the EU or the serious problems that have been faced. faced many UK exporters since 1 January, leading party figures. he reacted in amazement.
Last night, former cabinet member and Europe minister Peter Hain said that Brexit had become the “elephant in the room” for Labor.
Hain told the Observer: “It is quite understandable that Brexit has not been high on the Labor agenda, but it is not sustainable to ignore this elephant in the room that hurts British businesses, our vital performing arts sector, our security and the reach of our foreign policy. The Conservatives caused a last minute disaster with a Brexit with damaging consequences, especially for stability on the island of Ireland. “
A senior level said that the message from above was very clear: that there should be virtual “radio silence” on the issue. “The order that is coming out is: ‘don’t mention the war.’ They tell us that Keir wants to move on and that if we mention the B word, let alone suggest that we need a better deal with the EU than Boris Johnson, we are not being helpful. “
Multiple sources said MP Carolyn Harris, Starmer’s parliamentary aide with responsibility for coordinating with Labor Party members, including asking questions from the prime minister, had been discouraging Brexit interventions, saying they would harm to the leader.
With difficulties for UK exporters continuing and issues with Irish protocol unresolved, a member of Starmer’s front-row team said attempts to “hide issues under the rug just because we wrongly voted for the deal Johnson in December are very close to negligence. ” He added that Starmer was “terrified” of offending voters in the red wall seats in the Midlands and the North, where pro-Brexit voters defected from the Labor Party in the 2019 elections.
Since January 1, Starmer has not raised Brexit or the issues caused by it once in PMQs, and interventions on the issue by attendees have been rare. None of the shadow cabinet or trial team members have made a speech in parliament on the issues affecting UK business.
But now pressure is being put on Starmer and his shadow cabinet to come up with a vision of how it would seek to improve access to the EU single market, the UK’s biggest export market, after it emerged that thousands of companies UK exporters to the bloc are struggling with additional costs and red tape, prompting many to invest in warehouses and subsidiaries on the mainland, while downsizing and laying off staff in the UK.
At a special parliamentary party meeting before Starmer’s speech, Neil Coyle, the Bermondsey and Old Southwark MP, said Labor should do a “land grab” to become the party of business, given how damaging it had been. been Brexit for trade.
He called for an extension of a theme in Starmer’s speech on a new partnership with business to address the immediate concerns of all industries “from fishing to finance” as a result of the severe limitations of the government’s trade deal with the EU.
Former Transportation Secretary Andrew Adonis said it was incredible that Starmer chose not to mention Brexit in his speech. Keir’s speech on the economic challenges ahead never once mentioned the words Brexit, trade or Europe. This is unsustainable. It’s like talking about the weather without mentioning the wind and rain ”.
Referring to Starmer’s plan for a recovery bond, he added: “The best ‘British recovery bond’ would be to rejoin the European customs union and single market as soon as possible. “Reducing our trade and raising prices right now is disastrous. The crisis Britain is facing is not due to its ability to borrow, which has never been cheaper, but to massive unemployment and an economic recession. Brexit is one of the main causes of both. Labor will not be credible until it promises to fundamentally renegotiate Johnson’s damaging trade reduction treaty. “
Caroline Lucas of the Green Party, whose party has shown some signs of rising in the polls in recent weeks, said: “It’s impossible to believe that in his ‘reset’ speech on business and the economy, the opposition leader – he himself was once the most pro-European member of the shadow cabinet, he did not even dare to mention the B word once. Starmer may find such radical amnesia politically expedient, but it represents a shocking abdication of responsibility by the official opposition. “
A Labor source said: “Since January, we have consistently and repeatedly highlighted the bureaucracy of Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal that is holding back British businesses. Just last month, Labor asked for more customs agents to help businesses deal with more red tape. “
