The hole in Sir Keir Starmer’s ‘patriotic economy’ pitch - Yorkshire Post Letters

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is promising to “run a patriotic economy where Britain’s interest is centre stage” if he becomes Prime Minister later this year (The Yorkshire Post, February 26).

But is that rhetoric much different from that of his rivals - spinning fantasies and excuses for a Brexit that has failed? Disappointingly, once again Sir Keir talks about economic growth without any mention of our future relationship with the European Union.

Or as Ralph Blackburn, Politics Editor of your sister news website NationalWorld.com, remarked last week (February 19): “The elephant in the room for both Sunak and Starmer around growth is Brexit.”

Mr Blackburn points out that investment bank Goldman Sachs calculates that the UK economy is already five per cent smaller than it would have been had we remained in the EU: “That’s economic growth that Sunak would love to have right now.”

Presumably, so would Sir Keir and his Shadow Chancellor, Leeds West MP Rachel Reeves, if they’re Downing Street neighbours later this year.

But what is Labour offering that might help Britain recover that lost growth? Not much. It still rules out rejoining the EU, or even just the European Single Market and Customs Union. So Labour is seemingly not serving Britain’s best interests or being economically “patriotic”.

Already, British voters back rejoining the EU by 58 per cent to 42 per cent, according to website What UK Thinks’ summary of recent polling. And this is despite a lack of leadership on this issue by most prominent politicians …notably, Labour ones.

The Labour Party does have a clear lead in polls over the Conservatives on most issues that the public cares about. But despite the UK being in recession, it is only marginally ahead of the Conservatives (26 per cent vs 22 per cent) on which party would be best at handling the economy (YouGov, February 11).

So, if the Tories were to drop the culture war stuff in favour of what really matters to voters, Labour could still be vulnerable if we’re out of recession by the time of a year-end General Election. Especially if there remains a Brexit-sized hole in Sir Keir’s “patriotic economy” pitch to voters.