Keir Starmer felt so strong about the outcome of the Brexit referendum in June 2016 that he resigned as junior shadow minister under Jeremy Corbyn.
A few months later, he returned to the Labor leadership as Brexit secretary in the shadows and spent the next four years campaigning to mitigate the outcome, which he described as “catastrophic”, while retaining voters in the constituencies of the “red wall.”
But he was a remnant.
He campaigned against a Brexit without an agreement and in favor of a second referendum to give the people a “confirmation vote” on any agreement with Brussels.
However, in a speech on Monday night, the Labor leader will make it clear that the party will not try to reverse Brexit or soften Boris Johnson’s harsh Brexit by returning to the single market that included the free movement of people and goods across the EU. .
Is it a Starmer U-turn? The former prosecutor has tried to maintain a delicate and diplomatic balance amid divided views on Brexit within his party, his supporters and voters.
Here is a brief reminder of what he said in the past.
June 2016
“The outcome of the EU referendum was catastrophic for the UK, for our communities and for the next generation.” – Letter from Starmer’s resignation to Jeremy Corbyn.
June 2018
The Labor party was divided on the single market issue due to support for immigration controls in Brexit-supporting constituencies.
In 2018, the party rejected an amendment to the withdrawal bill that would keep the UK in the European Economic Area (EEA) and the single market, with Starmer proposing closer ties with the EU and promising to negotiate a free version circulation. The EU rejected it as “cakeism”, saying the four freedoms of the single market – goods, capital, services and people – were not “divisible”.
September 2018
Starmer continued with the tight rope of Labor at the party conference later that year.
But in an ad lib surprise comment, he delighted many in the audience when he said, “No one rules out staying as an option.”
February 2019
Starmer promises that staying would be an option in a second referendum. It should give voters the option of a “credible abandonment deal and stay,” he told the BBC’s Today program.
June 2019
After the European Parliament elections, which placed Labor in third place behind the Brexit party and the Lib Dems, it once again showed its remaining colors.
“After the local elections and, in particular, the EU elections, there are many in the Labor Party who believe that we need to be very clear about a second referendum and about defending permanence,” he said.
“Without a doubt, that’s what I’m advocating. Discussions are underway right now. I hope we can resolve it soon, and that will be a material step in the right direction as far as I’m concerned.”
January 2021
After the harsh Brexit deal reached by Lord Frost, Starmer abandoned his commitment to the free movement of people he had made in the Labor leadership contest.
“I do not think there is room for significant renegotiation. We just had four years of negotiation. We have reached a treaty and now we have to make that treaty work, ”he said.
June 2022
“There are some who say, ‘Brexit doesn’t have to work, we have to reverse it.’
“I could no longer disagree.
“Because you cannot move forward or grow the country, offer change or regain the confidence of those who have lost faith in politics if you are constantly focused on the arguments of the past,” he told the Center for European Reform.