Senior business leaders back Keir Starmer’s call
not to ‘diverge’ from EU
Trade bodies join political figures in backing ‘policy
of alignment with standards and regulations’ with bloc
Ben Quinn
Political Correspondent
@BenQuinn75
Tue 26 Sep
2023 06.00 BST
Senior
business leaders and trade bodies have backed Keir Starmer’s comments that
Britain should not part from the European Union on standards ranging from the
environment to employment.
The Labour
leader has come under fire from the Conservatives, who accused him of wanting
to “unpick” Brexit after saying that “most of the conflict” since 2016 had
arisen because the UK “wants to diverge and do different things to the rest of
our EU partners”.
In a letter
to the Guardian, dozens of business leaders and trade bodies joined with
political figures hostile to Brexit in endorsing what they described as a
“policy of alignment with EU standards and regulations, unless it is explicitly
not in the UK’s interests to do so”.
Signatories
to the letter included Peter Norris, the chair of Virgin, and Paul Drechsler,
from the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), who said that such a policy
would “enable businesses and investors to have confidence in the UK’s
regulatory foundations, while still allowing the UK to maintain its own
regulatory autonomy”.
The letter
adds: “By taking this approach, any future UK government will be able to
reassure businesses and investors, both domestically and internationally, that
the UK is committed to maintaining high standards and protections, strong
relationships with its trading partners, while also protecting the interests of
UK businesses.”
The
position of “beneficial alignment” differs from “dynamic alignment” – the idea
that the UK would follow evolving EU rules in an area indefinitely, which
Labour is at pains to stress that it does not support.
Keir
Starmer at the Global Progress Action Summit in Montreal on 16 September, where
he blamed most of the UK’s conflict with Europe post-Brexit on attempts to
diverge from it.
Other
signatories to the letter included Richard Griffiths, chief executive of the
British Poultry Council, and Steve Brambley, chief executive of Gambica (the UK
Trade Association for Instrumentation, Control, Automation and Laboratory
Technology). The letter was organised by Best for Britain, which was originally
launched in 2017 to oppose Brexit.
Norris
said: “Contrary to what was promised, leaving the single market has already
increased costs for businesses and consumers and further divergence will only
hike prices further during a cost of living crisis.”
The
intervention comes before the Labour party conference in October, where Starmer
is also likely to come under greater pressure from members of his own party who
are eager for him to take an even more forthright position on deepening ties
with the EU.
External
groups such as Best for Britain have also been keen to add to the political
argument that polling shows alignment in UK-EU relations is the most popular
option in all but six constituencies in England, Wales and Scotland.
Starmer’s
comments, made on a visit to Canada at an event bringing together progressive
leaders, opened him up to attack from the Tories and prompted surprise from
some in his own party who had come to regard Brexit as dangerous territory.
The
chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, told LBC radio: “I think those kinds of comments about
not wanting to diverge will worry a lot of people that what he really wants to
do is to unpick Brexit.”
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