The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Hilary Benn MP: "A Labor government cannot waste three years on another Brexit referendum"

2023-02-11T10:47:58.146Z


One of the parliamentarians who most strongly opposed the United Kingdom leaving the EU reflects on the conflictive relationship of the British left with the "European question"


Hilary Benn (London, 69 years old) is the living symbol of the latent contradictions in British politics.

She represents the fourth family generation of a saga of deputies.

Her father, Tony Benn, came to give name to a current of Labor, Bennism, characterized by a deep leftist discourse and a fierce opposition to the capitalist spirit of the then European Common Market.

Her son Hilary, who has been in charge of the Brexit parliamentary committee since 2016, was until the last minute one of the deputies who most combated the aggressive exit from the EU that Boris Johnson and his associates were pursuing.

From his residence in Leeds, he reflects for EL PAÍS via videoconference on the three years of validity of the agreement to leave the EU, just completed on January 31.

Benn has been doubly reconciled: with the spirit of his father, he shares the demand for a more democratic and transparent European Union;

with the new Labor leader, Keir Starmer, he accepts that the party must take a more pragmatic view of Brexit if it wants to rule the UK again.

question

.

Three years have passed since Brexit became a reality, and today it seems like a taboo issue that neither party wants to talk about.

Answer

.

All those who defended Brexit are very quiet today.

It is not that it was a complete disaster, but it was always clear that it was not going to bring anything good in economic terms.

There is no doubt that it has damaged the country.

The striking thing about all these Eurosceptics is that they are reluctant to take any responsibility and prefer to blame others.

We hear more and more extraordinary justifications, which basically fall into two categories.

One of them claims that Brexit has not been implemented correctly.

Like those communists who were confronted with Stalin's Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s and responded that there was no problem with Marxism-Leninism.

It just hadn't been done properly.

Q.

_

But neither does Labor plant a battle.

Its new leader, Keir Starmer, is resigned to promising that if he comes into government, he will make Brexit effective.

R.

.

The overwhelming majority of the Labor Party opposed Brexit until the last minute.

But it is very important to remember that we lost.

We lost the referendum and we were left out.

And now, it's sort of like trying to turn an oil tanker around.

You can't stop dead and reverse back to the starting point.

That's why I think Starmer's strategy is correct.

It is a political and practical response.

In order to govern again, we must recover the seats that we lost in the so-called “red wall”, the traditional Labor voting areas.

And that is not achieved by telling all those people who were wrong, to rectify and support us.

All this caused division and pain.

And in practical terms, rejoining the EU would require a new referendum.

Do not know anyone,

even among the most fervent defenders of remaining in the European Union, who argues that the party must now promise a new consultation.

And that, if he wins, he wastes the first two or three years in government on a matter that would once again divide the country.

Q.

_

Sunak's government is trying to unravel negotiations with the EU over the Northern Ireland protocol.

Or is it pure propaganda again?

R.

_

He is trying, although his position [within the Conservative Party] is very weak.

Unlike Boris Johnson, who was only interested in keeping the battle going, I think they are really negotiating this time around.

But to settle this matter, both sides must move.

Q.

_

Because you do admit that the tension between unionists and republicans over the protocol is real, it is not just a technical problem of greater or lesser customs controls.

R.

.

The members of the European Commission are surprised that some staunch defenders of permanence, such as myself, ask them for more flexibility.

Because, in the end, Northern Ireland is a political problem.

And their institutions of autonomous government are blocked, they are not working, regardless of the opinion that one has of the position of the unionists.

The UK Government has been unilaterally delaying, for two years, the obligation to impose customs controls.

For this reason, the EU has decided to launch a legal response.

But when I ask my European colleagues for just one example where the integrity of the internal market has been affected by the extension of those grace periods, they are unable to point to just one.

They simply tell me that the risk exists.

We need political will.

Q.

_

Has the Ukraine crisis helped bring the UK and the EU closer together?

R.

_

Eurosceptics said they wanted to regain absolute sovereignty.

No one has absolute sovereignty in the modern world, especially if you belong to an international organization.

The key is how you share it with others to further the interests of your own citizens.

Ukraine is a magnificent example.

I never understood why we did not pursue an agreement on Foreign Policy or Security and Defense Cooperation during the Brexit negotiations.

The Ukraine crisis has shown that you have no choice but to work together with your European friends and neighbours.

Q.

_

Europe is the constant wound of British politics.

Also in labor.

R.

.

Think back to 1975 and 2016, the referendum to stay in the EU and to leave the EU.

It is the opposite image, reflected in the mirror, of two political parties.

In 1975, the majority of the Labor Party and the unions were opposed to remaining in the common market.

[Labor Prime Minister] Wilson had to renegotiate the terms and call a referendum, which the majority backed to stay inside.

Conservatives were very supportive of the common market.

But then began Labour's journey.

And I always point out that the key moment was when Jacques Delors [then president of the European Commission] addressed the British trade unions in 1988, who were holding their confederal congress, and told them: “Brothers and sisters, I present to you a vision of a social Europe”.

The trade union movement, which has always been very practical,

contrasted with the government of Margaret Thatcher, which was undermining the rights of workers, with the promises that came from Europe.

In a matter of a year and a half, Labor completely reversed its approach.

Follow all the international information on

Facebook

and

Twitter

, or in

our weekly newsletter

.

Subscribe to continue reading

Read without limits

Keep reading

I'm already a subscriber

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2023-02-11

You may like

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-28T06:04:53.137Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.