Peter Mandelson has dismissed the prospect of an incoming Labor government taking Britain back into the EU, saying “you have to be kidding” Brussels wants to renegotiate Britain’s membership.
The Labor peer, former EU trade commissioner and close adviser to Keir Starmer, said rejoining the 27-nation bloc would require a referendum after the Conservatives mishandled Brexit. , British voters do not want a referendum.
“I can’t see the British people running towards [a referendum] After what we went through last time, it was for love and not for money. I really don’t think people will go back to the past,” he told a British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) event at Heathrow Airport on Wednesday.
Lord Manderson, speaking at the launch of the lobby group’s report on building a “global Britain” after the election, added that the Starmer government would pursue closer ties with the EU without rejoining the bloc.
Manderson went on to say that the EU wanted to establish a more “stable and constructive relationship” with the UK, but Brussels had no intention of engaging in large-scale negotiations on the UK’s return.
“Reopening negotiations? You’ve got to be kidding,” he said. “them [the EU] There are other priorities. They have other fish to fry now. They will not experience the back-and-forth, up-and-down, seesaw motion; or enter into another drawn-out, potentially hotly contested, indecisive negotiation with Britain. So that’s the simple answer. “
His comments came after the BCC called on politicians to “move beyond the long shadow of Brexit” and prioritize trade, including building closer ties with Britain’s largest trading partner.
Tech entrepreneur and BCC president Martha Lane Fox said politicians were often reluctant to acknowledge problems or propose solutions because of how they would be perceived by either side of the Brexit divide.
“This has to stop. Our politicians must be bolder in their decision-making. They must develop a strategy on how to manage EU regulation and diverge where it makes sense so that British businesses can benefit,” she said.
Manderson said Brexit had set off a “roller coaster of instability, a merry-go-round of ministerial changes” that had left the UK economy “going with one arm behind its back”.
The former business secretary under Tony Blair addressed business leaders at the headquarters of the company that runs Heathrow, overlooking the airport’s north runway. He said Labor would not follow the Conservatives’ post-Brexit strategy of chasing free trade deals around the world.
However, he said the UK could face a “difficult” situation with a possible Donald Trump administration in the US and weakening ties with Brussels after Brexit.
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“There is a risk that we could get into trouble or become collateral damage if tensions escalate,” he said.
Trump, who has launched a series of increasingly fierce trade wars with the United States’ traditional allies and rivals while in the White House, has said that if elected in November, he would impose a 10% tariff on all goods imported into the United States.
Manderson said the measure could prompt the UK to “join other countries to maximize our influence”, including in the EU and other G7 countries, while also signaling the need for action to strengthen the world’s trade organization.
“What a disaster [a trade war] This is true for the United States and Europe, and I have to say, for the rest of the world as well. “
