Brexit: ‘We don’t want to diverge’ from EU, says Sir Keir Starmer

Published

2 years ago

September 21, 2023

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Sir Keir Starmer has declared “we don’t want to diverge” from EU rules in footage of a conference of centre-left leaders in Canada seen by Sky News.

The Labour leader went beyond his usual cautious formulations on Britain’s relationship with the EU at an event on Saturday alongside the Norwegian prime minister, Jonas Gahr Store.

Sir Keir argued that Britain’s relationship with the EU could be much stronger, while still remaining outside the bloc and outside the single market, “the more we share a future together”.

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The comments surprised EU diplomats, who believe they are significant.

Leading expert Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, said that the comments go further than what Sir Keir has said previously, and that Brexiteers might question the point of leaving the EU if the UK does not significantly deregulate.

This is likely to trigger a discussion about the nature of a relationship with the EU and questions from some about whether Britain can maximise the advantages of Brexit if it is largely following EU rules.

The comments are likely to be welcomed by some businesses who do not want to have to operate under multiple sets of rules. However, others who feel held back by EU bureaucracy are set to be disappointed.

The remarks were made on Saturday evening. Sir Keir was responding to a question from John McTernan, a former aide to Sir Tony Blair, at a conference for progressive leaders in Montreal.

“Most of the conflict with the UK being outside of the UK [sic] arises in so far as the UK wants to diverge and do different things to the rest of our EU partners,” the Labour leader said.

“Obviously the more we share values, the more we share a future together, the less the conflict. And actually different ways of solving problems become available.

“Actually we don’t want to diverge, we don’t want to lower standards, we don’t want to rip up environmental standards, working standards for people that work, food standards and all the rest of it.

“So suddenly, you’re in a space where, notwithstanding the obvious fact that we’re outside the EU and not in the [European Economic Area], there’s a lot more common ground than you might think.”

He said there were a lot of shared values and history with the EU, and that on security issues, and NATO, it was good that the conflict in Ukraine brought institutions together – “that has created a wider space in Europe for a discussion.”

Last week, Sir Keir shut down speculation he might join an EU quota system on migrants after he said he would talk to the bloc about a migrant returns deal.

These comments go much further than Sir Keir went in an interview with the Financial Times on Monday, when he reconfirmed that he would negotiate a better deal with the EU.

Almost everyone recognises the deal Boris Johnson struck is not a good one – “it’s far too thin”, Sir Keir said in an interview, adding: “As we go into 2025 we will attempt to get a much better deal for the UK.”

Mr Grant, who is one of the foremost experts in UK and EU relations, said the comments were new.

“I think if Keir Starmer wants to get the best deal with the prime minister, he’s going to have to prepare the ground, which is why he saw Emmanuel Macron last week, why he probably said some comments when he was in Montreal that were quite interesting,” he said.

“Because he’s trying to soften up the other world leaders, so they know what to expect when he becomes prime minister if he does.”

Next week, Mr Grant and the CER think tank will publish “a European strategy for Labour.”

Asked if he was surprised by Sir Keir’s comments, he said: “I don’t know whether it was intended or not, and maybe it just slipped out late on the Saturday evening.

“The fact that he hasn’t said anything quite similar in the UK is perhaps telling. Maybe what he thinks is that we shouldn’t diverge too much with the EU because he understands instinctively that it’s actually bad for businesses.”

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Asked if keeping EU rules would undermine the rationale of Brexit, Grant replied: “I think that some of the Brexiteers have a point.

“The only economic case really that backs up Brexit is the idea of Singapore-on-Thames. The idea that if you do leave the EU, you are free to have your own rules.”

Sky News approached Labour HQ ahead of publication.

“One of the [two contradictory] Brexit arguments was that the UK could become Singapore-on-Thames i.e. the whole deregulation agenda of everything from environmental to labour reforms. We’ve always rejected that, we’re not interested in that sort of divergence,” a spokesman said.

A Labour spokesman added: “That doesn’t mean we support dynamic alignment. We’re not joining the single market or the customs union. We will not be in a situation where we are a rule taker.”

Politics

The Belgrave Circle effect is hitting UK politics

Published

2 hours ago

December 22, 2025

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The Belgrave Circle effect is hitting UK politics

This is a story about a roundabout in Leicester.

It’s not a particularly special roundabout.

But it does tell us something about British politics.

Belgrave Circle, in the north of the city, was opened in March 2015 on the site of an old railway station known locally as “The Gateway to Skegness”.

Later that year, Leicester – along with the rest of the country – went to the polls in the 2015 general election.

The vote saw David Cameron win a majority and Ed Miliband resign as Labour leader.

But around the Belgrave Circle, something different was going on.

Because this is the spot where Leicester‘s three parliamentary constituencies meet, and in 2015 they were all held by Labour MPs who saw their majorities increase.

It’s a different story now.

Stand in the middle of the roundabout and face towards Abbey Park and you’ll see the city’s only remaining Labour seat – that of cabinet minister Liz Kendall.

Turn around and face the B&M Home Store, and you’ll find the only place the Conservatives picked up at the last election.

This freak occurrence happened after the Labour vote was split by two independent candidates – both of whom also happened to be former MPs for the city.

Labour saw its vote share cut in half here, and then some.

The Tory vote dropped as well, but not by enough to stop the party coming through the middle and taking the seat by four thousand votes.

But walk to the south of this roundabout and you’ll get to where an independent candidate went one step further.

Local optician Shockat Adam won this seat last year, defeating frontbencher Jonathan Ashworth in a campaign focused mainly on Gaza and events in the Middle East.

What happened on this roundabout last July is no one-off. There’s plenty of evidence to suggest these phenomena could be on the rise around the country.

Since the election, Labour’s vote share has plunged, and its base has fractured as support for insurgent parties on the right and left surges.

A lot of the focus from this has been on Reform UK and how Labour can stop Nigel Farage in traditional ‘red wall’ seats in the midlands and the north.

And yes, Labour is leaking support to Reform on the right. But what’s often not talked about is the greater number of votes its losing on the left.

A rejuvenated Green Party under Zack Polanski is chasing Labour close in some polls, while Your Party is attempting to form a separate fighting force straddling ex-Corbynites, independent pro-Gaza candidates and those from the more hard-left tradition.

Come the next election, this could all have far-reaching consequences.

Sky News has ranked all 404 Labour seats according to how at risk they are to these new forces on the left. We created this ‘vulnerability index’ using factors like voting history, population and demographic data.

It shows several cabinet ministers in the top 25 most vulnerable, including Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood in fourth place, Sir Keir Starmer in thirteenth place and Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy in twenty-third place.

All three of these Labour big beasts have seen their majorities cut in the last election by a Green candidate, an independent candidate or a mix of the two.

In Birmingham Ladywood, the total number of votes won by independent and green candidates exceed the number won by the Home Secretary.

That could trigger trouble, given the Greens and Your Party have indicated they may be open to the idea of local “progressive pacts”.

But in the neighbouring constituency of Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North, the result last year shows how an altogether different result could materialise.

Here, Labour’s vote was again split by a left-wing insurgent candidate – this time from George Galloway’s Workers Party.

But the conservative vote was also cut in half by Reform.

If Nigel Farage can unite the right in places like this, he could come through the middle – in much the same way the Tories did in Leicester.

So how can the government fight back?

Part of the answer, according to senior figures, is attempting to tell a more appealing story about the more overly left-wing chunks of their policy platform – such as the workers rights reforms and rental overhaul.

The hope is these stories may be given more of a hearing in 2026 when (or perhaps more accurately, if) a corner starts to be turned on big domestic priorities like the economy, the NHS and migration.

If that doesn’t happen, the real saving grace for Labour could be tactical voting.

The Greens and Your Party have made it clear that they will plough on with their campaigns against the government, even if it ultimately benefits Reform.

What’s less clear is whether left-wingers across the country will.

If they are faced with the prospect of Nigel Farage in Downing Street, could they hold their nose and stick with Labour?

It all begs the question – who is their great enemy: the government or Reform?

Ministers are already trying to emphasise a binary choice when they talk about Labour being the one single “bulwark” to Nigel Farage.

Expect more attempts to mobilise this anti-Reform vote in the years ahead.

But that’s made more difficult by what happened around Leicester’s Belgrave Circle. The same political fracturing that’s dogged the right in years past now being replicated on the left.

Labour’s ability to pick up the electoral pieces may prove decisive in whether what took place on a shabby East Midlands roundabout in July 2024 is recreated across the country in a few years’ time.

Politics

US lawmakers push to fix staking ‘double taxation’ before 2026

Published

4 hours ago

December 22, 2025

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US lawmakers push to fix staking ‘double taxation’ before 2026

A group of 18 bipartisan US House lawmakers is pushing the country’s tax agency to review its rules on crypto staking taxes before the start of 2026.

In a letter sent to Internal Revenue Service acting commissioner Scott Bessent on Friday, the lawmakers, led by Republican Mike Carey, asked for a review and update guidance on “burdensome” crypto staking tax laws.

“This letter is simply requesting fair tax treatment for digital assets and ending the double taxation of staking rewards is a big step in the right direction,” Carey said.

The letter calls for taxes from staking rewards to be applied at the time of sale, so that “stakers are taxed based on a correct statement of their actual economic gain.”

*Mike Carey is leading lawmakers to change crypto staking tax rules. Source:* *Mike Carey*

The lawmakers argued that the current laws, which see stakers taxed upon receiving rewards and again when selling them, are hindering participation in the staking market, when the laws should be designed to support a fundamental part of certain blockchains.

“Millions of Americans own tokens on these networks. Network security — and American leadership — requires those taxpayers to stake those tokens, but today the administrative burden and prospect of over taxation discourages that participation,” the lawmakers wrote.

The letter concludes by asking if there are any administrative barriers to updating the guidance before the end of the year, and asserts that they should be changed to support the current administration’s goal of “strengthening US leadership in digital asset innovation.”

Not the only push for changes to crypto tax rules

On Saturday, House representatives Max Miller and Steven Horsford also introduced a discussion draft aiming to ease the tax obligations on crypto users by exempting small stablecoin transactions from capital gains taxes and offering a deferral option for staking and mining rewards.