Lammy dismisses Streeting’s call for UK to rejoin EU as ‘sixth form’ debating position – UK politics live
Good morning.
Good morning. Harold Wilson was right; a week is a long time etc etc. Seven days ago, the biggest threat to Keir Starmer was a half-baked challenge from Catherine West. A week on, with Andy Burnham on a viable path back to Westminster within the next few weeks, it now seems more likely than not that Burnham will be prime minister by the autumn, perhaps earlier, and that Keir Starmer will be out.
We are likely to hear from Starmer himself this morning. In the meantime, David Lammy, the deputy PM, has been doing a broadcast round. As Peter Walker reports, Lammy has insisted that Starmer is not about to set out a timetable for his departure.
This is the public position. But, in private, Starmer’s position seems to be a bit more nuanced; in his story from yesterday, Kiran Stacey quoted a friend of Starmer’s as saying: “[Starmer’s] position is not ‘I will stand, come what may’. It depends on what happens, but at the same time it’s about not rushing to positions that might suit particular other factions in the Labour party.”
Burnham is not the only candidate to be next Labour leader. Wes Streeting, the former health secretary, wants the job too and at the weekend he declared that he wanted to see the UK rejoin the EU.
Burnham’s allies interpreted this as a hostile act because it puts Burnham under pressure to either endorse the idea, which won’t be popular in Makerfield, the leave-voting constituency where he wants to fight the byelection, or to distance himself from it (despite the fact that he is on the record as also saying the UK should rejoin eventually), which won’t be popular with Labour’s pro-EU membership.
In his interview on the Today programme, Lammy dismissed this a “sixth form debate”. Asked about Europe, he said that Labour was elected on a manifesto that ruled out joining the single market or the customs union. Asked what should be in the next manifesto, he said he did not want to discuss something that might be three years away. He also said Labour should be focusing on delivery, not on internal arguments.
double quotation markWe have the opportunity of a lifetime to deliver on behalf of the British people. This is not a sixth form debate. It is delivery on behalf of the British people.
Asked what he meant by a sixth form debate, he replied:
double quotation markAcross the country in sixth forms, you can discuss what the position should be on Europe.
Lammy also claimed that Labour could not afford for this sort of internal debate to last much longer.
double quotation markI say to colleagues, 10 days of this fine, I think the British people will forgive us for the introspection. Ten weeks of this and we’re in desperate trouble, we will be out of office, and what will be ushering in is [Nigel] Farage.
In one respect, the “sixth form debate” line sounded a patronising way to describe a key question facing Britain’s future. But, in another respect, Lammy was right to argue that debating EU membership now is not particularly relevant. There is no way that Brussels would want to open serious talks on re-entry with a country where there is a strong prospect of Reform UK forming the next government and, as the (pro-British) Polish foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, recently warned, EU members think there is no point holding negotiations until the British realise that any future membership deal won’t be as good as the one we had before.
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Keir Starmer is expected to speak to the media while on a visit with the new health secretary, James Murray.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
Lunchtime: Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor and potential Labour candidate for Makerfield, is due to speak at the Great North Investment Summit in Leeds.
Early afternoon: Nicola Ranger, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, speaks at the RCN conference.
2.30pm: MPs resume their debate on the king’s speech, focusing on business.
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