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UK election result 'blew away' argument for second Brexit vote: Labour's Starmer


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UK election result 'blew away' argument for second Brexit vote: Labour's Starmer

 

2020-01-05T155445Z_1_LYNXMPEG040H0_RTROPTP_4_BRITAIN-EU-STARMER.JPG

FILE PHOTO: Labour's Keir Starmer speaks to the media as he leaves the BBC Headquarters after appearing on The Andrew Marr show in London, Oct. 20 2019. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls/File Photo

 

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's December election "blew away" the argument for a second Brexit referendum and the country must move on from its divide over whether or not to leave the European Union, the frontrunner to lead the opposition Labour Party said on Sunday.

 

Keir Starmer, a former senior public prosecutor and Labour's Brexit spokesman, took a leading role in persuading the party to back a second referendum but said the lack of clarity over how Labour would campaign in such a vote had been damaging.

 

Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservatives won a large majority in last month's election, paving the way for Britain to leave the EU at the end of January.

 

"We are going to leave the EU in the next few weeks and it is important for all of us, including myself, to recognise that the argument about leave and remain goes with it," Starmer said in an interview with the BBC.

 

"We will have left the EU and this election blew away the argument for a second referendum, rightly or wrongly, and we have to adjust to that situation, the argument has to move on."

 

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn's decision to step down following the election defeat has opened the way for a leadership battle that will determine the direction of the party, which moved to the left during the veteran socialist's tenure.

 

Starmer is seen as a party centrist who could struggle to win over left-wing members who backed Corbyn, but is the bookmakers' favourite and a YouGov poll carried out at the end of last month gave him a strong lead over other candidates.

 

Starmer said Labour needed to focus on Britain's future ties with the EU. "The argument now is can we insist on that close relationship with the EU," he said. "My concern is less about technical membership of the EU now, it is if we shift our focus from the EU, move away from those standards and arrangements."

 

(Reporting by Kylie MacLellan; Editing by David Holmes)

 

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-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-01-06
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looking at how Brexit has been handled over the three + years

it would be more prudent to say that the plan is for UK to exit EU end of this month.

 

It may or may not happen as read in the tea leaves, don't think anything re Brexit

would surprise me any more

 

 

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1 hour ago, CG1 Blue said:

We are legally leaving the EU on 31st Jan. Negotiations from this point are around our future trading relationship outside of the EU.  Can you explain what sequence of events you think could lead to a u-turn?  

Easy as that. 

The deal has to be approved by parliament. 

If not the endless story will start again. 

And if their is no deal then what is next? 

 

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1 minute ago, stevenl said:

Guy seems a realist.

 

Brexit was a bad process, bad decision and I think there will be major regrets, although honesty about the cause for the regrets will probably be absent.

But there is no other option now but go along with it and try to make the best out of it.

Once the election was called, the defeat of Corbynism took precedence over Brexit, particularly as Boris took Hard Brexit off the table prior to the election and couple that with the Labour Party confusion over what policy they actually stood for.

The Labour Party has 2 straightforward choices: either it settles accounts with Corbynism or it backs off and tries to pin the tail totally on the Brexit donkey. Starmer (BTW, my constituency MP, Holborn and St. Pancras) is trying to take the second route it appears. More fool him.

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1 hour ago, steve187 said:

dream on, keep holding onto the dream of remaining, when will the remainders give up, the potential leader of the commies has

Nothing to do with dreaming, the UK will come to regret voting for the US Trumpet.

Of course unlike Blair, Bojo can take the UK to war with the will of the people.

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4 minutes ago, vogie said:

"I am from the EU and believe me, after all that headache, many of us won't miss you."

Who are these "many of us won't miss you", most people would have thought that a country that pays in 1 billion pounds a month to the EU project would be sorely missed, unless it's a case of sour grapes of course. It's like living under the same roof and having to give the owner all our wages and the owner gives us a little spending money back, but tells us how to spend it. Neighbours is fine, but we do not want to be lodgers.

 

One thing for certain is if we cannot make a go of it being out of the corrupt EU, we don't deserve to anyway. But I sure the better we do, it can only benefit the EU in the long run.

 

But it's sad to see after nearly 4 years of cheap jibes and snide remarks this is now turning into bitterness, this does not help our respective countries achieve entente cordiale.

 

 

I guess you reap what you sow. 

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