Further and faster? Calls for deeper ties harder to resist

When Keir Starmer stood on the Labour conference stage in 2018 and defied Jeremy Corbyn to call for a second Brexit referendum with remain as an option, it put him in pole position to become the next Labour leader.

- Eleni Courea

Starmer must now feel a sense of deja vu watching Wes Streeting, the most out-and-out pretender for the leadership, follow a similar playbook. In an interview at the weekend, the health secretary strayed from the official government line to call for “a deeper trading relationship” with the EU.

Speaking to the Observer, Streeting implied that joining a customs union with Europe would give Labour a distinctive message with which to take on Nigel Farage at the next general election. To many Westminster observers, the obvious point is that like Starmer’s intervention in 2018, Streeting’s remarks align him with the Labour members and voters who overwhelmingly support stronger ties with Europe.

Polling by YouGov published suggested that 80% of those who backed Labour in 2024 support negotiating a customs union deal with the EU. Seventy-three per cent backed talks to rejoin the EU entirely.

Most intriguingly, however, Streeting’s remarks speak to a growing section of Labour MPs - including some senior cabinet ministers - who lament the government’s promised “reset” of EU relations as decidedly unambitious and believe that going further could be a gamechanger for economic growth.