Brexit is back. Steve Bray is back – and his EU hat, fancy banners, and antisocial music on the streets are back. Dodgy pro-EU claims and Project Fear – now Project Mislead – are back in the papers too. Labour’s hatred of Brexit is back – with no respect for democracy or Labour’s millions of pro-Brexit voters.
It is thanks to Labour Leadership contenders Wes Streeting and Andy Burnham, and now the current incumbent Prime Minister Kier Starmer, for bringing Brexit back. They have announced they want to Rejoin the EU; despite 17.4 million people voting for Brexit – nearly twice the 9.7 million voters Labour actually achieved in the last election. The Labour manifesto of just two years ago said there would be no return to the Customs Union, Single Market or Free Movement. This pledge is now suddenly in danger.
Indeed, top historian Dr David Starkey, interviewed by Mark Littlewood of Popular Conservatives, warned of a national crisis actually more divisive in many ways than the two world wars and with reforms of 1660 and 1689 scale to truly put Britain back on course.
Keir Starmer's EU surrender has woken a sleeping giant - David Campbell-Bannerman
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So, the timing of the Freedom Association’s ‘Brexit Unbound’ Conference on Tuesday [19th] in Westminster was frankly perfect. This was a conference to challenge the myths around Brexit – the false claims and untruths – and to focus on the positives – the achievements to date; but with the recognition – from former Chief Negotiator Lord David Frost – that Brexit is yet to be completed. An example was the intervention by Jim Allister MP asking how Northern Ireland too can enjoy the benefits of Brexit acknowledged as unfinished business. It was agreed this must be addressed as a priority as an issue for all the UK.
But sadly, this is more like Groundhog Day. I have found myself repeating the arguments for various trade models – we have a ‘SuperCanada’ style freer trade deal with the EU. Starmer’s reset is pushing us into slavishly adopting Single Market laws again in a game of ‘Grandma’s Footsteps’ – where the intention is to hide the moves behind our backs. Britain has actually been spared 13,000 EU laws just in the 10 years since we left. This is the kind of worse deal that Norway has – but Britain has a lot more economic sectors and population than Norway. So, I pointed out it is time to defend, promote and to deliver Brexit – the choice is now: make the most of Brexit opportunities or surrender to Starmer’s Reset.
Trade expert Catherine McBride reminded us Rejoin would mean slapping on thousands of EU tariffs Brexit have allowed us to get rid of. Lord Hannan pointed out it is time to push the benefits, that there was no point returning powers from the EU to Whitehall if they merely aped the same bureaucratic centralised approach – those powers should be delegated down further such as to local authorities.
As Labour plots to drag Britain back into the EU's orbit, the Brexit fightback has begun, writes David Campbell-Bannerman
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Nile Gardner, a Brit who runs the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom of the Washington DC-based Heritage Foundation explained how President Trump genuinely values sovereignty, loves the UK, and is wary of the EU. Rubio has dismissed the Falkland Islands support story for Argentina as utter nonsense – the Whitehouse never even saw the email from a junior government official.
The Freedom Association being Cross Party, it has speakers from Reform, Labour and Conservatives – David Jones, former Brexit Minister and Welsh Secretary, spoke so eloquently on the threat to Brexit and argued for intelligent divergence, border control and global thinking. Former Conservative Leader Iain Duncan Smith superbly summarised the big battle ahead – another Battle of Britain looms.
Lord (John) Redwood blew apart the nonsense claim of an 8% GDP hit from Brexit. This was double the original 4% claim (indeed, why not 16% or 32% - it’s all made up anyway?!). He pointed out they were claiming this as a loss now when it actually was for the period to 2035 and clearly hasn’t happened. Lord Redwood pointed out the hard facts that Britain grew far more before joining the EU – 3.5% on average; then under half that rate when in Single Market; so Rejoiners are making the case for even lower growth now. Net zero is also destroying key industries. Indeed, the excellent economic commentator Liam Halligan added that he doubted there had been any economic hit at all from Brexit. So why is this nonsense reported as gospel in the media?
Writer of the book ’75 Benefits of Brexit’ Gully Foyle was on hand to explain how a challenge to name just one benefit of Brexit led him to find 75 benefits with more to come, such as billions saved in EU fees. Every one is verified as factually correct by multiple Ais – Grok, Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini.
One of the most moving sections was the ‘Labour slot’ where echoes of a better, more principled old Labour Party emerged – what I call ‘Decent Labour’, but which is now sadly a tiny minority. With the great Brexiteer and former Labour MP Kate Hoey chairing, Lord Glasman of Blue Labour sadly concluded Labour “has died in the hearts of our people”. He brilliantly summarised that the battle is not now between Left and Right but between Sovereigntists and Globalists; that we need the Rule of Law not the Rule of Lawyers, reiterated that family life was the foundation of our society, wants a UK based and expanded defence industry, and for the Royal Navy to stop the boats!
Graham Stringer MP pointed out that the Rejoin argument that we must have second referendum because some people had died since as farcical, Labour needs to focus on real issues and that the view damning waving union jacks or St George’s flags as fascist was just extraordinary. Former Luton MP Kelvin Hopkins joined in support and deeply regretted the loss of Vauxhall motors
which once employed 38,000 workers; saying the EU has been a disaster for manufacturing. There was much support for Shabana Mahmood.
The veteran constitutional expert former MP Sir Bill Cash warned of the dangers of Starmer’s EU reset and how ‘dynamic alignment’ threatens democracy when there is no Parliamentary debate or scrutiny, using ‘Henry VIII powers’; acting rather like an amoeba, creates a democratic black hole and is national subjugation. He stressed that sovereignty IS democracy.
So, Brexit is back on the agenda with a vengeance and we are going to have to fight for our country all over again. The conference film will be on www.tfa.net by end of the week.