View source for Document:Sunak likes the single market. So why doesn't Labour?

{{Document
|title=Sunak likes the single market. So why doesn't Labour?
|source_name=The Observer
|source_URL=https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/mar/05/even-sunak-seems-to-like-the-single-market-so-why-doesnt-labour
|publication_date=5 March 2023
|type=Article
|authors=William Keegan
|image=Rishi_Sunak.webp
|image_width=300px
|image_caption="The [[Brexit]]er who blew the case for [[Brexit]]"
|subjects=Brexit, Rishi Sunak, Northern Ireland Protocol, Windsor Framework, EU single market, EU customs union, Keir Starmer 
|description="I had many criticisms of [[Thatcherism]] and its impact on unemployment and social harmony, but one thing [[Margaret Thatcher]] got right was the importance of the [[EU single market]] and attracting [[Japan]]ese, [[German]] and other firms to the [[UK]]. All this is now up for grabs by [[Starmer]] and his team."
}}
There is a marvellous moment in one of the great [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fast_Show Fast Show] sketches when, within seconds, the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Smiley George Smiley-esque] interrogator raises his hand in triumph because the prisoner has given himself away – blown it, as they say. Such a moment came last week, when, in his commendable efforts to settle the [[Northern Ireland Protocol|Northern Irish question]], [[Rishi Sunak]] told the province how lucky it was to be in the [[EU single market]] as well as the [[UK]].<ref>''[https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/feb/28/sunak-decides-the-protocol-sucks-and-the-single-market-is-great-after-all-john-crace-brexit "Sunak decides the protocol sucks and the single market is great, after all"]''</ref>

I should not wish to push the comparison too far, but it is certainly the case that before the euphoria accompanying the [[Windsor Framework]], the prime minister appeared to be a prisoner of the rightwing [[European Research Group]] (ERG), who are in cahoots with the [[Democratic Unionist Party]] (DUP).<ref>''[https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/feb/27/rishi-sunak-deal-eu-brexit-northern-ireland-protocol "Sunak hails ‘new chapter’ in UK-EU relations as Northern Ireland deal is agreed"]''</ref>

There is much speculation that, notwithstanding all the triumphalist spin and the splits in the ranks of some of the former hardliners, he still is. (More of which later.)

His words about the wonders of [[single market]] membership will certainly not have appeased the [[Brexit]] hardliners, but they are music to the ears of rejoiners such as your correspondent. In one sensible and crushingly obvious observation, [[Sunak]], a [[Brexit]]er himself, has blown the case for [[Brexit]]. This should be a moment when the rejoin campaign reinvigorates itself, and forgets all this pessimism about “it’s going to take years”.

That it is going to take a long time is the depressing conclusion of an outstanding analysis by [https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/person/sam-freedman Sam Freedman of the Institute for Government,] entitled – not depressingly – [https://samf.substack.com/p/getting-brexit-undone "Getting Brexit Undone".] [https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/person/sam-freedman Freedman] emphasises how the now widespread recognition that [[Brexit]] is a disaster has shifted voter sentiment decisively, “leaving the major parties in a quandary”.<ref>''[https://insidestory.org.au/getting-brexit-undone/ "Getting Brexit undone"]''</ref>

Although 54% of [[YouGov]] respondents say [[Britain]] was wrong to leave the [[EU]] and only 34% say it was right, as he says, “both the government and the opposition are studiously, and understandably, ignoring this shift in opinion”.

Now, personally, I am not sure about the “understandably”. But Freeman concludes: “I don’t know if [[Britain]] will ever formally rejoin the [[EU]], but I would be very surprised if it doesn’t have a dramatically different relationship within a decade, and that may well include ''de facto'', if not ''de jure'', membership of the [[single market]].”

Hang on a minute. [[Michel Barnier]], the [[EU]]’s former chief [[Brexit]] negotiator, has said the door is open now. And as [[Guy Verhofstadt]], the former European parliament [[Brexit]] negotiator, said about [[Sunak]]’s remark that there was still unfinished business over [[Brexit]]: “Yes – reversing it.”

Hanging over this is the spectre of [[Boris Johnson]]. As the classical scholar and essayist [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Eyres Harry Eyres] has written in the ''[[New Statesman]]'', [[Boris Johnson|Johnson]] “believes himself to be the reincarnation of [[Winston Churchill]]”. In fact, says [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Eyres Eyres,] “he much more closely resembles a political figure of an earlier era, the charismatic Athenian chancer [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcibiades Alcibiades … serial betrayer”.] As he notes, “[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutarch Plutarch] reports the misanthrope [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timon_of_Athens_(person) Timon] saying to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcibiades Alcibiades] ‘Go on boldly my son, and increase in credit with the people, for thou will one day bring them calamities enough'.”<ref>''[https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2019/06/boris-johnson-sees-himself-churchill-he-s-closer-athenian-chancer-alcibiades "Boris Johnson sees himself as Churchill but he’s closer to the Athenian chancer Alcibiades"]''</ref>

[[Brexit]] is a calamity. There were many lying culprits – and still are – but the crucial swing voter was [[Boris Johnson]] who, by all accounts, is lying in wait to try to unseat the prime minister.

But, mercifully, [[Sunak]], in his encouragement to the [[Northern Ireland|Northern Irish]] to accept his deal, has given the game away. It is now up to the [[Leader of the Opposition]] to pick up the gauntlet. No re-entry to the [[EU customs union]] or the [[single market]]? Come off it! The political pages have been replete recently with how [[Keir Starmer]] has effortlessly scrapped previous pledges. It is time for the [[Leader of the Labour Party|Labour leader]] to accept that he was right all along to be a remainer, and to be prepared to exercise real leadership and offer to lead this country in the right direction.

Day by day now one reads in the ''[[Financial Times]]'' and elsewhere of major investment decisions by corporations being subject to doubts about choosing the [[UK]] as a location because of, yes, [[Brexit]].

I had many criticisms of [[Thatcherism]] and its impact on unemployment and social harmony, but one thing [[Margaret Thatcher]] got right was the importance of the [[EU single market]] and attracting [[Japan]]ese, [[German]] and other firms to the [[UK]]. All this is now up for grabs by [[Starmer]] and his team.

Let us end this week with a little Labour history. [[Harold Wilson]] in 1964, like [[Starmer]] now, had ambitious plans for growth. The 1964-70 Labour government was inhibited in its ambitions by a lack of international competitiveness owing to an overvalued pound and a refusal to devalue until the markets forced the issue in 1967. This limited the scope of the National Plan. [[Starmer]]’s ambition for the fastest growth in the [[G7]] is a tall order in itself, but will be even more difficult to realise if he doesn’t grab the opportunities of re-entering the [[customs union]] and the [[single market]].

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