Rejoin

Lisa Nandy vertelde de BBC dat zij de 'plotselinge focus op Europa' van de Labour-leiderschapskandidaten niet begreep. UK politics live – laatste updates De Britse cultuursecretaris heeft oproepen voor Groot-Brittannië om opnieuw toe te treden tot de Europese Unie als "vreemd" afgedaan, een dag nadat haar voormalige kabinetscollega Wes Streeting zei dat de toekomst van het land opnieuw in het blok ligt. Lisa Nandy bekritiseerde de voormalige minister van Volksgezondheid op zondag en stelde dat zijn opmerkingen van het afgelopen weekend het risico liepen een debat opnieuw te openen dat 10 jaar geleden met het Brexit-referendum was beslecht. Lees verder...

• Voormalig minister van Volksgezondheid, van wie wordt verwacht dat hij binnenkort een bod op het leiderschap zal doen, veroordeelt 'hardhandige' aanpak • Wes Streeting heeft een vernietigende aanval gelanceerd op wat hij beschrijft als de "hardhandige" leiderschapscultuur van Keir Starmer, waarvan hij claimt dat deze creatief beleidsdenken binnen de regering heeft gesmoord. • Streeting bekritiseerde de effectiviteit van de eerste twee jaar dat Labour aan de macht is – een periode waarin hijzelf volledig deel uitmaakte van het kabinet – en stelde dat Labour "onderbezet en onvoorbereid aan de macht kwam op te veel gebieden en een gebrek had aan duidelijkheid in visie en richting".

Philip Rycroft says promises on issues from economics to immigration have not lived up to expectationsBritain should start talking about rejoining the EU, according to a former senior civil servant who ran the Brexit department.Philip Rycroft, who was permanent secretary of the Department for Exiting the EU, said the “argument was there to be won” about going back into Europe, adding that a “clear-headed appraisal of what is in the country’s best interests” was needed. However, he said rejoining the bloc could be a “long and windy” road. Continue reading...

But Labour’s ‘halfway house’ approach risks losing support from progressives and ‘red wall’ voters, experts sayUK politics live – latest updatesSupport for rejoining the EU rather than simply rejoining the single market is growing among British voters, with more than 80% of Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green party supporters favouring this option, research mapping voter attitudes 10 years after the Brexit referendum shows.But Labour’s “muted” approach means it now risks losing support among progressive voters and in “red wall” constituencies, experts have said as part of a research by Best for Britain. Continue reading...

London mayor also says his party should make clear manifesto commitment on full membership in next parliamentGood morning. Shortly before the general election in 2024, Keir Starmer said he did not think the UK would rejoin the EU in his lifetime. (He is now 63.) At the time he was loath to say anything that implied the Brexit vote was a mistake. More recently, Labour has been happy to talk about the economic damage done by the leave vote, and ministers want a closer relationship with the EU, but ruling out a customs union or single market membership remain firm red lines for Labour. And even more pro-EU parties, like the Liberal Democrats, are a bit vague about when full rejoining might be an option (not least because the last thing the Brussels probably wants is another half-decade of Brexit negotiations hell).But today Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, is trying to shift the debate into a different space. In an interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, he has said not just that rejoining would be good in principle (which is about as far as most pro-European Labour MPs are willing to go), but that Labour should commit to rejoining in its next election manifesto.I see on a daily basis the damage Brexit has done to not just London, but Londoners, the damage economically, socially and culturally. And I’m quite clear in terms of what needs to happen, which is I do think we should join the European Union …So I think there should be a five-stage process in relation to this. Continue reading...