I know many of my friends are still ardent EU enthusiasts, particularly the higher education crowd, but UK Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy is once again proving to be a voice of reason in questioning the wisdom of Labour restarting the Brexit wars.
With Reform UK picking up seat after council seat in the recent local government elections, does the Labour Party really want to fight the next general election on enemy territory?
That didn’t work out too well when Labour handed the Conservatives a thumping majority back at the end of 2019, after Boris Johnson promised to end years of turmoil following the referendum and would ‘Get Brexit Done’ if elected prime minister.
So, I’m with Lisa in wondering what Wes Streeting is playing at when he says he would take Britain back into the EU if he replaced Keir Starmer as prime minister, or words to that effect.
Just a ploy?
Of course, focusing on Brexit could just be just ploy to undermine the chances of ‘King of the North’ Andy Burnham to get back to Parliament, which Andy needs to do before being eligible for any Labour leadership contest.
But I wonder if any Labour members, or supporters, would thank Wes for helping lose the forthcoming by-election in a pro-leave stronghold on the outskirts of Greater Manchester?
If that happened, Keir Starmer would probably go on to beat Wes Streeting in a straight leadership battle, if a survey of Labour Party members is to be believed, and remain prime minister.
Re-run of 2019 election
Reform leader Nigel Farage would turn the next General Election into a re-run of 2019 and promise to ‘Get Brexit done and dusted’ by tearing-up the UK-EU ‘resets’ that Labour has won, including probably UK association with Erasmus+ and Horizon Europe, which should worry UK higher education and research stakeholders.
With the Greens and Lib Dems grabbing much of the remaining pro-EU vote and Reform taking most of the Leave electorate, there would be small crumbs left for Labour in a Brexit general election in 2029.
Five years ago, before he became prime minister, I asked in a blog, “Can Keir Starmer land a knockout blow on the Tories?”.
It didn’t seem likely, despite “all the truth twisting and rule-breaking chaos” by Boris Johnson, to quote the words of former Tory minister Anna Soubry.
Back then, I was one among many urging Starmer to make better use of his team, including his women members, Angela Rayner and Lisa Nandy, to engage with voters who were fed up to their back teeth with politics and politicians.
Lance the Brexit boil
I also urged Starmer to “lance the Brexit boil” and move on.
“Voters don’t know what the Labour Party led by Starmer stands for”, I quoted then deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner saying, adding Labour had got the “tone wrong”.
Sadly, not enough has changed; and having a re-run of Brexit wars is the last thing we need at the moment.
With Labour members now more likely to be graduates working in London than steel workers on Teesside, my blog pointed out that Starmer, like the previous Labour leader (Jeremy Corbyn) was a North London inner-city MP and “his message doesn’t seem to be cutting through to enough traditional Labour voters in regions like North East England.”
I also quoted Lisa Nandy, who was shadow foreign secretary back in 2021, and reminded Labour MPs, or at least those who were in parliament at the time that they “were actually whipped in the end to back Brexit to avoid a ‘No-deal’ scenario”.
Careful what you wish for
So, be careful what you wish for Mr Streeting – and let’s not raise false hopes in those who want us back in the EU.
There is no doubt that the European Commission would drive a very hard bargain and force the UK to adopt the ‘Euro’ to rejoin the club, which many would baulk at, and so any new referendum would be lost – probably by 52% to 48% again!
It would split the country and would play into Reform UK’s hands, which I am sure is not what Wes Streeting really wants to see.
Here’s my blog from July 2021, https://www.delacourcommunications.com/can-keir-starmer-land-a-knockout-blow-on-boris-johnson/
Also see: ‘Wes Streeting’s Brexit play may be clever gamesmanship – but it has nothing to do with Europe’ by Anand Menon, Director of The UK in a Changing Europe, The Guardian, 19 May, 2026 – https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/19/wes-streetings-brexit-europe-referendum