Labour should learn to love Brexit, not just tolerate it
Instead of backing our exit grudgingly, the Left ought to reclaim the socialist roots of Euroscepticism
28 December 2020 • 6:00am
Labour will vote for the UK/EU trade deal on Wednesday, a remarkable turnaround, given that Sir Keir Starmer was a militant Europhile. Politics has changed: Remain is now the peripheral position. The question Labour faces is, should it just accept Brexit or embrace it? I’d urge the latter, for two reasons.
First, Brexit makes the argument for social democracy, and its construction, a little easier. Many Tories wanted to leave the EU as a means of reducing the size of the state; recall Mrs Thatcher’s warning at Bruges in 1988 that Britain hadn’t defeated socialism at home only to have it imposed from overseas. But Brexit in practice is so disruptive that it justifies