Former Tory Chancellor George Osborne says Keir Starmer has set an ‘easy trap’ for Kemi Badenoch by resetting relations with the EU – and she will find it hard to attack it at the next election
Labour has set an “easy trap” for Kemi Badenoch – and she looks like she’s walking straight into it, former Tory Chancellor George Osborne says.
The austerity chief said the Tories will shoot themselves in the foot if they keep banging on about betraying Brexit. It comes as Keir Starmer seeks a new trade relationship with Europe after years of tension.
Mr Osborne said businesses will feel the benefits of a new relationship – and Tories will look stuck in the past if they keep on opposing it. It comes after polling shows over half of Brits regrets leaving the EU.
He said: “There is such an easy trap here for the Labour government to set for the Conservatives, and has the immediate economic benefit of doing something that’s going to help your GDP in the next few years: Do some kind of trade deal with the EU.”
He said such a deal could make it easier to do agricultural checks, saving billions of pounds a year. He told the Political Currency podcast: “So you basically are digging a pit, you’re putting the spikes in, and you’re inviting Kemi Badenoch to walk into the pit. Because once the deal is done … Every British business will start to adjust to the new trading relationship that they have with the EU, the new customs arrangements, which will be an improvement on the ones that exist today.
“Then you get to the general election, and the Conservatives will say, ‘it’s outrageous, they betrayed Brexit, you know, they’ve conceded some power to the European Court of Justice’ or whatever. They’ll try and rerun the Brexit campaign from 2016 which will be ancient history by then, and every business will go ‘We are not going back to that. We are absolutely not going back into the Brexit chaos…’”
Mr Osborne said that reaching a new deal with the EU will “will win over the business community in that single manoeuvre”. He said the Tories “will be stranded on a kind of ideological argument that really only has resonance with a small portion of the population”.
Labour has made it clear it will not seek a customs union with the bloc, or returning to a single market. And Keir Starmer has repeatedly said that a return to EU membership is not on the cards.
Last week a damning poll found 55% of voters believe it was an error to leave, and just 11% say Brexit has been more of a success than a failure.
YouGov found nearly two thirds of Brits – 64% – support a closer relationship with the EU without formally rejoining. This includes six in 10 leave voters, polling showed.
But Ms Badenoch told The Daily Express that she is “committed to fighting to defend our freedoms and protecting Brexit” as she argued against cozying up to Europe.
