In three major speeches at Labour Conference today, the EU was once again the elephant in the room. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper didn’t mention the UK-EU cooperation needed to address the small boat crisis. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy didn’t mention Labour’s commitment to introducing EU touring visas for UK musicians and artists. And Sir Keir Starmer didn’t mention Europe at all. If he’s serious about national renewal, he must finally face the damage being done in every corner of the UK.
Response from European Movement UK
Sir Nick Harvey, former Defence Minister and CEO of European Movement UK, said:
“Being outside the European Single Market is costing our economy £115 billion a year and the public finances more than £40 billion a year. The government can neither stimulate significant growth nor rebuild public services without addressing that. Harsh reality won’t go away just because they are too timid to mention it.”
Dr Mike Galsworthy, Chair of European Movement UK, said:
“Closer ties between the UK and EU are the only way to fix so many of the problems pummelling the UK economy and affecting us all. We have cut ourselves off from our principal market, our most important partners, and that is the underlying crisis that faces this country. Sir Keir Starmer cannot get something for nothing in his EU negotiations. We need him to be more ambitious, starting with youth mobility, touring visas and enhanced UK-EU defence cooperation.”
When the general election was called in May, European Movement’s president Lord Heseltine felt it would be the most ‘dishonest of his lifetime’, saying ‘you can’t have a discussion about the country’s economy, or its defence, or immigration, without mentioning Brexit’. Now more than ever, the UK must have a forward-looking independent inquiry into the impacts of leaving the EU on the UK, and the future of the UK-EU relationship.
National Rejoin March
This Saturday (28 September) sees the third National Rejoin March in London, when pro-European campaigners will hold a march and rally to remind the new government of the importance of our relationship with Europe. They will call on media and the government to put rejoining the EU on the agenda, and then to keep it there until the UK is back in the EU.
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