DAILY MAIL COMMENT: A Berlin bromance to threaten Brexit
It would be understandable for Brexiteers to feel anxious about the amount of time Sir Keir Starmer and Olaf Scholz are spending in each other’s company.
Since winning power 55 days ago, the Prime Minister has met the German chancellor no fewer than five times. Yesterday, the bromance continued apace.
Sir Keir has repeatedly said that he wants a ‘closer relationship’ with the EU, and he reiterated this during a visit to Berlin. Britain needed to ‘turn the corner on Brexit‘.
To lay the groundwork, he opened talks on the UK’s biggest ever bilateral treaty with Germany. Crucially, this is intended to forge closer links on commerce – ultimately boosting economic growth.
But as an EU member, Germany is not permitted to negotiate its own trade agreements. Sir Keir and Mr Scholz are well aware of this. Which raises a very big question: Just what are they scheming?
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz shakes hands with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer
Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, August 28
The suspicion must be that the Prime Minister is trying to sneakily sidle the UK back into the EU’s regulatory orbit.
But why would we want to? Our economy is outgunning much of the eurozone. Economists warn that cosying up to the bloc could drive down growth. And thanks to our Brexit freedoms, we had been striking deals with the world’s most dynamic economies.
It has always been a shibboleth of the Remain establishment that anyone who voted to leave must be a deluded ‘Little Englander’. Yet they are the ones looking backwards. As we travel forwards, the EU is a fading power – a crumbling ancien régime.
But Sir Keir is an ardent Remainer who yearns to rejoin whatever the cost. While he rants about Labour inheriting ‘societal division’ from the Tories, he himself helped sow the seeds of discord by trying to overturn the referendum result.
The PM insisted yesterday he did not want to ‘reverse Brexit’. But can we believe him?
He promised voters taxes would not rise on his watch. Look how that’s turning out.
Since winning power 55 days ago, the Prime Minister has met the German chancellor no fewer than five times. Yesterday, the bromance continued apace
Sir Keir has repeatedly said that he wants a ‘closer relationship’ with the EU, and he reiterated this during a visit to Berlin
Driving up fuel tax
Hard-pressed motorists appear to be the latest in the firing line on taxes, with Sir Keir refusing to rule out a hike in fuel duty.
This has been frozen for 14 years, saving drivers billions, yet if Chancellor Rachel Reeves increases it, the typical motorist will be worse off by up to £100 a year.
Putting pump prices up will hammer people travelling to work and parents doing the school run. And the extra costs to business will see the price of goods rise.
While the Government will claim this is a green tax to help repair the nation’s finances, it’s actually to fund inflation-busting public sector pay deals.
Was Labour serious about protecting working people’s hard-earned money? It seems like another ruse to win votes.
Sir Keir poses with the CEO of Siemens Energy Christian Bruch (left) and Vice President Siemens Energy UK Darren Davidson as he visits the Siemens Energy plant, part of German industrial conglomerate Siemens in Berlin on August 28
Failing on the boats
Sir Keir has revealed his latest big idea for stopping the Channel migrants – intercept the trafficking gangs as they tow small boats across Germany to northern France.
However, such a policy already exists. And while German law enforcement does its best to seize dinghies en route to the beaches, they are too often outwitted.
The only way to break the business model is to make clear that illegal entrants won’t be allowed to stay in Britain. But since Labour scrapped the Rwanda deterrent, 6,858 migrants have reached our shores.
In opposition, Sir Keir castigated the government for failing to solve the problem. Now he’s in government, he has nothing to offer but insubstantial gestures.
