Two-thirds of Brits want Starmer to drop his Brexit red lines
A new survey finds half of UK citizens want relations with the EU to be prioritised while only 17% want America to be given priority. So why isn't the Labour government listening?
British Chancellor Rachel Reeves sat in on a Council meeting of EU finance ministers on Monday - a highly symbolic move given that these are meetings the UK chancellor used to attend regularly as an EU member. She gave the same warm words that her prime minister Keir Starmer did on his ‘reset’ visit to Brussels in October, saying: “Division and chaos defined the last government’s approach to Europe. It will not define ours. We want a relationship built on trust, mutual respect and pragmatism.” But just like Starmer, she came empty-handed - insisting that the EU should drop “unnecessary trade barriers” with the UK but refusing to back down on Starmer’s red lines ruling out any alignment with EU law. There is, plainly, nowhere for the EU to go based on the Labour government’s current position. And there is no interest in pursuing trade talks as long as that position doesn’t change.
The obstinance from the Labour government is all the more surprising given that public opinion polls show that voters are not with them on this. The whole point of maintaining these red lines (a position that Starmer is reportedly imposing on Reeves, who wants to see them relaxed) is to avoid losing “Red Wall” voters to the center-right Tories and far-right Reform. But a new poll published today by the European Council on Foreign Relations found that 55% of people in the UK think Britain should get closer to the EU, compared to only 10% who want a more distant relationship.
The poll clearly shows that citizens are less bothered about the Labour government’s red lines than the government is. Asked about trade-offs that could be necessary for the UK to regain special access to the European market, 68% of respondents said they would be happy for Starmer to drop his red line and accept free movement (for EU and UK citizens to be able to travel, live and work freely on either side), while only 18% opposed this. Even a majority (54%) of Leave voters and Red Wall voters (59%) said they would be happy to accept freedom of movement in exchange for better economic and trade access. And the idea that dropping the red lines would open Starmer up to accusations from the public (as opposed to the media) that he wants to rejoin the EU are not born out by the facts. Only 19% said they think the Labour government wants the UK to rejoin the EU. Almost seven in 10 people in the UK want the government to accept the Youth Mobility Scheme being offered by the EU as a first step toward greater market access (which Starmer has ruled out as being “free movement”). 55% of Leave voters want the government to accept the scheme.
And despite the British media’s obsession with the UK’s relations with the United States under Trump, who has attacked Labour, the vast majority of respondents said they don’t want the government to prioritize America over Europe (something you’d never know from the British media debate).