Labour’s rEUnion will take place by stealth

The most dramatic new policy from a Labour government will not be an annual £28 billion invested in the green economy. Neither will it be greater workers’ rights.

Whatever Keir Starmer says in advance of the general election, it will be the gradual, stealthy embrace of the EU as though we never left. The political commentator Ian Dunt said re-joining the EU is a believable ten year project. I agree. But little will be said about this direction of travel in the early years of a first Labour administration.

A stealthy embrace of the EU will take place under Labour…

There is no point in holding a second referendum in the foreseeable future. We are denying it to the Scots and certainly don’t want to waste energy and political capital by winding up the angry sub-40% who still think Brexit was a good idea. Neither does joining the single market work today if it means undermining the one salient feature of Brexit, however pointless in practice, that we have control of our borders.

No. Driven by Russia’s aggression, we will align our military forces more closely with the EU as it, in turn, starts to create a single defence capability. We will participate fully in the Horizon research project, fully align financial services regulation, negotiate visa-free access to Europe (visas are due for UK citizens from 2024), and even negotiate pet passports. There will be no bonfire of EU laws as promised and already partly reneged on by the Conservatives.

None of this will be an obstacle to positive post Brexit initiatives of greater efforts in training our home-grown workforce, and as part of this, it is common sense that migrant workers can’t be employed for 20% less than the usual rate for the job. This is already Labour Party policy.

A good Labour government can have its cake and eat it. Domestic reforms to improve national productivity whilst aligning ourselves more closely with the EU again. And if this is successful, the possibility of re-joining the EU on a ten year view.

Quietly, slowly, patiently, the greatest self-inflicted damage to the UK’s political and economic standing will be reversed.

Michel Barnier interviewed on ITV this week said the UK can return to the EU anytime. The Conservative Party, metaphorically turning in its grave, will be a bystander in this process when it eventually happens.