“The last government was defined by breaking our relationship with Europe. This Labour government will be defined by rebuilding our relationship with Europe, by putting Britain at the heart of Europe, so that we are stronger on the economy, stronger on trade, stronger on defence,” he told an audience of Labour activists and lawmakers.
Asked by attending reporters whether this meant he might ditch the tight red lines in his manifesto ruling out membership of the EU single market and customs union, Starmer replied: “What I want to do is take a big leap forward with the EU-U.K. summit this year and take us closer, both on trade, the economy, defence and security, and that will then be a platform on which we can build as we go forward.”
“As we do that, I strongly believe, we’ve got to turn our back on the arguments of the past, not open old grievances, but look forward together to how we make this country stronger, how we make this country fair — and so that’s the approach that I will take,” he said.
Starmer’s answer is an about-face from his rhetoric on the matter just last year. Asked then whether he could see a situation where the red lines might be reconsidered, he told POLITICO: “No,” adding that the “framework” for his reset “in relation to the red lines is clear.”
In his latest attempt to reset his troubled premiership — which has seen his party sink to third or even sometimes fourth place in opinion polls — Starmer said he had “learned a lot in my first two years in office in terms of the policy challenges that our country faces.”
He added: “Incremental change won’t cut it on growth, defence, Europe, energy — we need a bigger response than we anticipated in 2024 because these are not ordinary times.”