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SIR Keir Starmer tells Sadiq Khan there is ‘no case’ for UK to rejoin single market


Dominic Penna
Fri, January 20, 2023 

There is “no case” for Britain rejoining the EU single market, Sir Keir Starmer has said in a rebuke to Sadiq Khan, the Labour Mayor of London.

The Labour leader dismissed calls from Mr Khan for a debate on returning to pre-Brexit economic arrangements as he attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Last week, Mr Khan called for a “pragmatic debate about the benefits of being a part of the customs union and the single market”.

But Sir Keir told BBC Newsnight: “We would accept that the deal [Boris] Johnson got is not a good deal, and you can see the impact it is having on our economy.

“And that is why we have been clear we want a closer relationship with the EU. That starts with the protocol in Northern Ireland. It then goes into a discussion about how close we can be.

“We can’t go back into the EU. There isn’t a political case for going back into the EU or the single market. But I am having discussions about what a closer trading relationship might look like.”

Sadiq Khan Mayor of London Brexit Labour politics - Leon Neal/Getty Images

Sir Keir has vowed to “make Brexit work” in a bid to win back the support of Red Wall voters – the majority of whom voted for Brexit and deserted Labour for the Tories at the last election.

He has said Labour would negotiate a new security pact with Brussels and implement measures that it says would ease tensions created by checks required by the Northern Ireland Protocol.

Earlier this month, he said a Labour government would introduce a “Take Back Control Bill”, echoing the language used by the Leave campaign in the 2016 referendum, with a view to transferring more powers from Westminster to local communities.

Mr Khan said in his remarks to business leaders at Mansion House that “Brexit isn’t working”, and claimed that “a shift from this extreme, hard Brexit” would help to improve Britain’s economic outlook.

The Mayor acknowledged that the public did not have the appetite for “a return to the division and deadlock” of the years between voting to leave the EU in 2016 and Brexit happening on Jan 31, 2020, but said leaving the blod had had detrimental effects “at a time when we can least afford it”.

The average level of support for staying out of the EU fell below 45 per cent for the first time in October.