Leading Brexiteers from across the party divide will gather in London on Tuesday as Labour big beasts who want the UK in the EU work to replace Keir Starmer
Will Britain rejoin the European Union? (Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Brexit veterans who warn Britain is in danger of “betrayal” will come together next week as Labour leadership contenders who want the country once again inside the European Union vie to succeed Sir Keir Starmer. Former Health Secretary Wes Streeting nailed his pro-EU colours to the mast at a Labour gathering, declaring he wants to see the United Kingdom “one day back in the European Union”. Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham – the highest polling contender to succeed Sir Keir – has already said he wants to “see this country rejoin the European Union” in his lifetime.
Trade expert Shanker Singham compared panicked Labour politicians pushing for a closer relationship with the EU to “lemmings deciding the safest place is to jump off the cliff”.
Leading Brexiteers who believe the crisis at the top of Labour means there is the threat of a “Brexit betrayal” will gather on Tuesday in London for an all-day conference organised by the Freedom Association. It warns that Sir Keir – who wants to remove trade obstacles in a deal that would see the UK “align” with certain EU rules – is a “serious threat to Brexit” but the “alternative prime ministers are worse”.
Mr Burnham is expected to fight the Makerfield by-election and then challenge Sir Keir for the Labour leadership. The contest will see the Labour candidate and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK put forward radically different visions for the country’s future.
Reform deputy leader Richard Tice attacked Labour frontrunner Mr Burnham, saying: “Andy Burnham is yet another obsessive EU Remainer in open revolt against the will of the British people. His election would deliver another EU fanatic in Labour ranks, determined to betray 17million voters and drag us back into the EU’s broken economic model.”
Former Brexit minister David Jones said: “Starmer would sell Brexit out in a stroke if he thought it would save his skin. As for the rest of this third-rate field, they all think that the EU flag is the one for the sell-out Left to rally round as they scramble to cling onto power.”
Britain will next month mark the 10th anniversary of the Brexit referendum, which saw the UK vote by 52% to 48% to leave the EU. Pollsters YouGov found in April that 55% of Britons supported rejoining the bloc with 33% opposed.
Sir Keir responded to this month’s disastrous elections to English councils and the Welsh and Scottish parliaments by pledging his Government “will be defined by rebuilding our relationship and by putting Britain at the heart of Europe”.
David Campbell Bannerman, chairman of The Freedom Association, said all the the potential Labour leaders “plan to betray Brexit in a desperate lifeboat operation for Labour MPs”.
The 2024 Labour manifesto promised “there will be no return to the single market, the customs union, or freedom of movement”.
Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith will tell the Brexiteeer gathering: “The Labour party has no electoral mandate to override the biggest vote this country has ever seen when voting for Brexit. We must defend the overwhelming democratic vote of the British people and fight to make sure Brexit is not betrayed. The Labour party’s internal leadership psychodrama should not hide the fact that they plan to take the UK back in to the expensive clutches of the EU. In short Labour want wreck Brexit.”
Trade expert Mr Singham said: “It is strange that the anger in the country that delivered the bigger Labour loss in a generation, generated by the lack of hope and economic opportunity should lead to a Labour contest where the candidates are competing to be more closely aligned to the very economic system that has left the EU and UK stagnant for twenty five years.”
Andy Burnham is the choice of 15% of the electorate to be PM (Image: Getty Images)
When voters were asked by pollster Techne which of eight top contenders they wanted to be Prime Minister, more than half (54%) said none of the above or that they did not know.
Mr Burnham polled highest but with support of just 15%, ahead of former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner (7%), Energy Security Secretary Ed Miliband (6%), Sir Keir (5%), Mr Streeting (5%), Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and armed forces minister Al Carns (both 3%) and Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson (2%).
Conservative MP Jack Rankin said: “[It] doesn’t really matter which clown is driving the clown car if they’re all racing to Brussels.”
He said contenders will try to “outbid each other for applause at North London dinner parties”.
At a gathering of the Right-leaning Progress group of Labour supporters, Mr Streeting said: “[Leaving] the European Union was a catastrophic mistake. In 2026, the British people increasingly see that in a dangerous world, we must club together, both to rebuild our economy and trade, and improve our defence against the shared threats from Russian aggression and [President Trump’s policy of] America First. The biggest economic opportunity we have is on our doorstep. We need a new special relationship with the EU, because Britain’s future lies with Europe – and one day back in the European Union.”
Mr Streeting made his call for the UK to rejoin the EU at a time when Labour is polling far behind Reform UK, the successor to the Brexit Party. Techne puts Nigel Farage’s party on 29%, ahead of the Conservatives and Labour (both 17%), the Greens (16%), the Liberal Democrats (12%) and Restore Britain (3%).
Lord Frost is one of Britain’s highest profile Brexit defenders (Image: STEVE FINN PHOTOGRAPHY)
Former Chief Brexit Negotiator Lord Frost will defend Britain’s decision to leave the EU at the Freedom Association conference, saying: “There is no legitimate way to blame Brexit for the UK’s current economic malaise; that is just the current Government seeking to cover for their own mistakes. The Brexit deal is working but we can still go much further to capitalise on the opportunities offered by leaving the control of the EU. A truer Brexit is far better than a damaging and costly reset.”
Ex-Brexit minister Mr Jones said: “Britain has always been in Europe. But most British people never believed we should be governed politically from Europe. The answer to democratic frustration cannot be to place more decisions further away from the voters. Most people now understand that the political class accepted Brexit formally, but never truly reconciled itself to it.”
Speakers at the Freedom Association event are expected to include Lord Frost, Sir Iain, Lord Hannan, the incoming Director General of the Institute of Economic Affairs, Blue Labour founder Lord Glasman, Mr Jones and Mark Francois, the chairman of the European Research Group.