DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Don't be fooled by Sir Keir's Brexit betrayal

DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Don’t be fooled by Sir Keir’s Brexit betrayal

When Keir Starmer claimed that he would not try to unpick Brexit if he became prime minister, this paper warned his words should be taken with a large pinch of salt.

Despite solemnly promising to respect the referendum result, he was at the forefront of the parliamentary chicanery to overturn it, led the disgraceful ‘People’s Vote’ campaign and plotted with European Union chiefs to foil our departure completely.

So how sincere was the Labour leader when he vowed not to drag the UK back into the ambit of Brussels? The answer, we learn unsurprisingly, is: ‘Not very.’

Sir Keir glibly speaks about negotiating a ‘much better’ deal, based on a ‘closer trading relationship’, if he wins power.

Best of luck with that! We know from the excruciating days of the Brexit talks that the EU is institutionally incapable of being reasonable. And, true to form, Sir Keir is squirmingly evasive about which of our sovereign rights he’d be ready to sacrifice.

Keir Starmer glibly speaks about negotiating a ‘much better’ deal, based on a ‘closer trading relationship’, if he wins power

But no one should be under any illusion… Brussels never gives without taking more, usually much more, in return.

Of course, Sir Keir insists Labour would not rejoin the single market and customs union. But can this evangelic Remainer really be trusted to stand up for democracy on behalf of 17.4million Leavers?

Or would he heed the Europhile ultras, Whitehall ‘Blob’ and big business clamouring for Britain to go back to shadowing the EU’s rules and regulations, as a prelude to full realignment? Only the most credulous amongst us could think the former.

While the Government has seemed depressingly reluctant to properly embrace it, Brexit has not been the economic disaster Sir Keir and his stooges gleefully claim.

Free from Brussels interference, we have signed exciting trade deals with some of the world’s most dynamic and fastest growing economies. Inward investment is booming. Britain has, so far, avoided a slump.

By contrast, the Eurozone teeters on the brink of recession. Germany, once its engine room, is on its knees. Far-Right parties are on the rise. The supposedly mighty Brussels project Remainers revere is imploding.

Yet Labour, dogmatically, is determined to tie its growth strategy more closely to a stagnating continent. Sir Keir either thinks pro-Leavers are too stupid to notice this betrayal of Brexit – or so disillusioned with the Tories they no longer care.

Great train disaster

If Rishi Sunak does, as reported, bring down the axe on the Birmingham-to-Manchester leg of HS2, the high-speed railway will be in danger of becoming Britain’s most catastrophic white elephant.

The public is aghast at the ballooning bill (more than twice the initial estimate of £33billion), which has already seen the project scaled back enormously.

And today we reveal a staggering £424million of taxpayers’ money has been spent buying up properties along the at-risk line north of Birmingham – uprooting hundreds of families for no reason.

If Rishi Sunak does, as reported, bring down the axe on the Birmingham-to-Manchester leg of HS2, the high-speed railway will be in danger of becoming Britain’s most catastrophic white elephant

If ministers persevere with HS2, it promises to fuel economic development and spread prosperity along the lines. But they must get the colossal cost of the project, managed ferociously badly by hubristic, overpaid incompetents, urgently under control.

If they are going to build this new railway, they must do so fully and properly. If not, it will be a national disgrace it was ever allowed to get this far.

Delays receiving passports or driving licences because staff refuse to return to the office might be frustrating, but it’s not a matter of life and death. 

It is, though, when home-working leads to probation officers making mistakes in assessing the risks posed by offenders. 

Such blunders can lead to horrific crimes, so watchdogs are right to condemn the practice. Probation officers’ first duty should be public protection – not their own pampered work-life balance.

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