Here is Labour’s “Growth Minister” – three words that should never sit next to each other in a sentence – Lord Livermore standing at the Lords despatch box claiming it is an “inevitability” that Brexit will be undone:
“We are seeking to mitigate at the margins the huge damage done to the UK economy by Brexit… should we in due course re-enter the European Union, well of course, my personal view is that that is an inevitability. Of course the Uk will at one point re-enter the European Union because it is absolutely in our economic interest…”f
It is almost ten years exactly since the referendum, and the likes of Livermore still haven’t recovered. At least he gets to carry around a red box and call himself the Financial Secretary to the Treasury. Labour’s rejoin efforts are now so obvious they can be observed from outer space. Will Starmer disagree with these comments?
Tom Baldwin, author of Starmer’s hagiography, spoke to Times Radio:
Tom Baldwin: “I think he’d like to do something. He’s very dutiful and driven by service. That’s why he came into politics. I think that’s characterised his time as prime minister. He hasn’t always sought popularity or been good at being popular. But I think he has some of the necessary qualities that we actually do want in a prime minister. That resilience, that relentlessness, that ability to carry the weight and the job really does weigh very heavily on people and he carries that weight very, very well.”
Jo Coburn: “NATO Secretary-General?”
Tom Baldwin: “I think that’s something that he would be interested in. I think it probably requires Andy Burnham’s government to support him in that and these are some of the questions which Andy Burnham has to resolve quite quickly.”