Labour would have the EU run our foreign policy - last week the mask slipped, says Peter Bone
Sir Keir Starmer's Labour Party has been accused of wanting to give more control to the EU
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Has David Miliband let the cat out of the bag? He wants the UK to have its foreign policy set by the European Union. While Keir Starmer and his acolytes strenuously avoid mentioning the EU, the former Labour Foreign Secretary and brother of Ed Miliband, former Labour leader, has no such qualms.
Writing in the Guardian last week, he claimed that the UK has lost influence since Brexit and is just one of many middle powers. His solution is to get back into bed with the EU. Let the EU run our foreign policy. To do this we must enter new structures and commitments with the EU. In other words, going back into the EU by the back door.
I have never understood why the left wing elite are always knocking our country. Why they despise our past and believe there is no future unless we surrender our sovereignty to the EU. I am proud of our country and what we have done in the past and how we are influencing the international community today.
The premise of David Miliband’s article is complete tosh. Our influence on the world stage has increased, not declined, since leaving the EU. It is also palpable nonsense that we are just a middle power.
Let’s look at some of the facts:
- The UK is one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.
- The UK is one of the world’s few nuclear powers.
- The UK heads the Commonwealth, made up of 56 countries covering 2.5 billion people.
- The UK is a leading member of Nato which defends Europe from attack. It’s one of the few members of Nato that meets its funding commitment. Most EU members do not!
- The UK has a special relationship with the US. This gives us unique influence with the world’s leading power.
By any objective judgement, the UK is a major player on the world stage. Since Brexit our influence has been clear to see.
Who led Europe’s response to the war in Ukraine? It wasn’t the EU, they pontificated and dithered. It was Boris Johnson and the British Government.
Who got the first vaccination in Europe against Covid? It wasn’t the EU who’s bureaucracy and inefficiency led to nothing. It was Boris Johnson and the British government that got the Pfizer vaccine developed in the UK allowing 4.6 billion vaccinations to be delivered in 181 countries all over the world.
Who is lowering duties on goods to help developing countries to trade and lower prices for British consumers? It isn't the EU, which, after all, is a protectionist racket. It is the UK, only this week it suspended 126 tariffs on goods and extended suspension on another 11.
None of the above would have been achieved if we were in the EU. All of the above shows that, as an independent nation with our own foreign policy, we are a major player on the world stage.
What we really learn from David Miliband’s intervention is twofold.
First, that Labour see the European Union as a political project where decisions on important foreign policy can be taken behind closed doors by the political elite with no risk of any accountability to the nation states.
Second, that there is a detailed plan to take the UK back into the EU by stealth. These plans won’t be mentioned at any General Election and won’t be subject to any democratic scrutiny. There certainly won’t be a referendum.
One of the huge dangers at the next General Election is that we will sleep walk our way back into the European superstate by electing a Labour government.