The upcoming byelection in Makerfield is a gruesome shock yet entirely predictable, serving three purposes at once. First, it is a straight popularity contest for Andy Burnham, raising concerns about how many times one can be called 'King of the North' without it boiling the brain. Second, it acts as a limbering-up round for the coming Labour leadership challenge. Third, and most importantly, it tests what Labour would need to look like to beat Reform when it matters. What could be more helpful than for everyone involved—cabinet ministers, backbenchers, commentators—to reach back into their memories and find the stupidest thing ever said about Brexit, and say it again in a more excitable voice? Get ready for Brexit-argument bingo; if you think you have heard them all before, that is why it is so fun.
Starmer's Admissions and Promises
Keir Starmer jumped first, even before the byelection was on the cards. After announcing a plan to nationalise steel—an industry already under government control—he made huge admissions about Brexit, followed by even larger promises. He said Brexit had made the UK poorer, sent migration through the roof, and made the country less secure. While it is common knowledge that Brexit has made the UK poorer, it is extremely surprising to hear the prime minister make a straightforward statement on the EU that relates to reality, rather than a convoluted set of red lines from an alternative universe where Europe is begging to take the UK back but the UK is holding firm.
More surprising still was the news that 'This Labour government will be defined by rebuilding our relationship with Europe and putting Britain at the heart of Europe.' How that would work is perplexing without breaching those red lines that everyone is supposed to understand even though they make no sense. Baffling as it all is, it has the comfort of nostalgia, being powerfully reminiscent of Starmer as Brexit secretary in Jeremy Corbyn's shadow cabinet. He felt so remain-adjacent, being the kind of person who listened to reason, who had not had enough of experts. And yet it was all just vibes. There really should be a word for anti-nostalgia, a moment that reminds you powerfully of the past and fills you with regret for its consequences and dread of going back there. Oh yeah, that word is 'politics'.
The 'Red Wall' Defender
In comes the plucky 'red wall' defender, backbencher Jonathan Hinder, Labour MP for Pendle and Clitheroe. In raw, man-of-the-people language, he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that if he told this to people in a pub, 'they'd say, ''You are off your rocker if you think the priority for the British people right now is to restart this debate.'' And, he went on, 'We are just over a week after we took a real beating in our working-class heartlands.' And there it is again: the mantra of many politicians in and around 2017: the British working class all thinks the same thing, and I alone can interpret it.
Streeting's Europhilia
Wes Streeting said at the weekend that Brexit had been a 'catastrophic mistake' and the best thing for the British economy would be to rejoin the EU; it is a solid view, easily defendable, shared by more than half the British public. But more importantly, it is the settled opinion of 80% of Labour voters, and the party members, the remainiest of them all, are who Streeting needs to win over. Will this Europhilia, so taboo in politics for so long, result in concrete action down the line, or is it just more crowd-pleasing vibes? Impossible to say, and David Lammy, for one, just wishes that everyone would stop saying anything. Comment and debate about Brexit is for sixth-formers, he argued, also on Today. The only way for Labour to survive is to stop talking and pull together, he concluded. Sure, that always works.
Brexit broke the connection between things that are said and things that are done, promises that are made and realities that ensue. The facts have changed since 2016—public opinion, balance of trade, geopolitics—but the language remains the same, delivering what would once have sounded like a physical impossibility, that the nation stood still and yet rapidly worsened. I did not see that on the side of a bus.
