Why Wes Streeting is wrong

Some of the most infuriating, and destructive, people to deal with in a democracy, are the monomaniacs who can never accept that an issue has been decided. This particularly applies to extreme nationalists of any stripe and extreme anti-nationalists opposed to them who cannot treat an issue as decided and when they lose a democratic vote the next day start organising a new campaign  for a new vote to try to reverse the result.

There is a difference between a vote on whether or not to break up a particular country or pull a country out of a complex and deeply integrated international union, and an election which puts party A rather than  party B in as the government of a country. In the latter case it is entirely reasonable for people who support party B, or indeed C, D or E,  to campaign to gain or regain office at the following schedule election.

It is not right or reasonable for those who lose a referendum to do everything in their power to frustrate the implementation of the result. And although a referendum result should not be expected to stand for all time, there are serious costs and consequences if instead of accepting the result at least for a few years, those who lose are constantly agitating for another vote with the intention of forcing their fellow citizens to vote again and again until they get the result they like.

One of those consequences is that the arguments involved can paralyse the regular government of the country, as Britain's governance was held hostage for years by the Brexit argument and as the SNP have concentrated effort on demanding another referendum which they should have spent on running Scotland.

Another consequence of that the people who you have been in a union with, and who see you fighting like ferrets in a sack about whether to leave or rejoin and apparently unable to make your mind up, are likely to get very frustrated with you.

To the SNP idiots, it's a win if the "English" get fed up with them, they hope it will lead to actions which make a break more likely.

But those who want to rejoin the EU, they need to be aware that every time Britain shifts position we use up our goodwill capital in Europe and it becomes harder and harder to do deals with the EU on acceptable terms when they expect us to try to change whatever deal we have signed in five minutes.

I voted Remain for a number of reasons which were explained in this blog at the time: I thought the benefits of greater freedom of action were more than offset by the damage which would be done to our alliances and our economy, not to mention the logical impossibility of a satisfactory way to "take control" of our borders which did not involve border controls on the border between Northern Ireland and the rest of Ireland with dire consequences for the whole island, or in the Irish Sea between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

Nothing that has happened since has persuaded me that I was wrong, and if there was any way to put the clock back, if we could somehow have the 2016 vote again, I would absolutely still vote Remain.

BUT WE CANNOT PUT THE CLOCK BACK.

All the damage to our relationships with our friends and allies in Europe has already been done and cannot be undone. If we change our minds and try to rejoin the EU, other member states will never trust us not to change our minds a third time and leave again - and why should they?

If we were allowed to rejoin the EU - and it would only take one country to veto our rejoining as General De Gaulle famously did twice in the sixties - Britain would never have as much influence within the EU again as we had before Brexit.

And the terms on which we could rejoin the EU would never be as favourable as the terms we had before and which were not good enough to persuade British voters to stay.

Previously we had an agreed opt-out from the Euro which let us keep the pound, an opt-out from the Schengen agreement which allowed us to control our borders (with Ireland which wasn't in Schengen either) and a budget rebate negotiated by Margaret Thatcher which considerably reduced the UK's net contribution to the EU budget.

It is most unlikely that anything remotely like that deal would be offered again.

And this is why I don't believe it will happen.

If you ask voters in Britain and a number of EU countries whether they support the principle of Britain rejoining the European Union, without discussing the terms of entry, majorities in all countries say yes.

But YouGov has found that if you ask British voters whether they would still want to rejoin on the standard terms, not the package we had before, so we would have to give up the pound, join the Schengen agreement and lose border controls, and not get a budget rebate, British voters say no.

And if you ask voters in the EU whether Britain should be allowed to rejoin on the terms we had before, EU voters in most countries (Denmark being the exception) say no.

(Polling data from 2025)   

The suggestion from Wes Streeting that Britain should rejoin the EU is a distraction from the decisions Britain has to make in the real world today.

Streeting knows this: his comments are not a real policy proposal but part of his campaign for the Labour leadership and an appeal to the instincts of Labour MPs and members who are living in the past.