Proof that the campaign for the next British general elections has really begun, Keir Starmer, the leader of Labor, the first opposition party in the United Kingdom, is launching himself onto the international scene, which he had until now carefully avoided.
He was in The Hague on September 14 to speak with representatives of the anti-crime agency Europol. He then flew to Montreal (Canada) where he participated last weekend in a conference of social democratic leaders during which he met the Finnish Sanna Marin and Barack Obama and met face to face with the first Canadian Minister, Justin Trudeau. This 61-year-old former Attorney General for England and Wales was due to be in Paris on Tuesday September 19 for an interview with Emmanuel Macron.
Methodical and cautious, Keir Starmer who, since taking the reins of Labor in April 2020, has succeeded in neutralizing the left of the party and enjoys a lead of at least 15 points in the polls, also dares to address subjects previously considered too risky by its strategists, because they were too divisive in British public opinion: migration and relations with the European Union. From Montreal, he promised that if his party won the elections (which will probably take place in the fall of 2024), he would initiate a “vast renegotiation” of the post-Brexit trade agreement signed at the end of 2020 between Boris Johnson and representatives of the European Union (EU).
No reintegration into the single market
In an interview with Financial TimesKeir Starmer insists: “This deal negotiated by Mr Johnson is not good, it is far too narrow. (…) We need to make it work better, I speak as a father of a 15 year old boy and a 12 year old girl, I don’t want them to face a future worse than ours . » The economic impact of Brexit is difficult to quantify, but it is now known that it has complicated the exchange of goods and services with the EU due to the customs procedures put in place.
His plan remains vague: the MP has already mentioned a possible veterinary agreement to eliminate laborious sanitary and phytosanitary controls at borders, as well as mutual recognition of professional qualifications with the continent. But Mr Starmer has ruled out negotiating the UK’s reintegration into the single market. The question is above all whether the Europeans, after the European elections of 2024, will have the energy and the political will to grant London more than the technical revision of the treaty, already planned for 2025.
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