Keir Starmer’s EU dream exposed as the farce it is on the world stage

The EU is left out of the room as talks continue over , just as it recently emerged is now outspending the rest of Europe combined when it comes to defence.

Does the Labour government seriously want to get back into bed with this underwhelming, underfunded and underachieving bloc?

Full disclosure, I voted Leave in 2016 for very specific reasons. For starters, given the binary yes/no nature of the referendum, my sense then – and now – is a Remain vote would have seen Britain go ‘all in’: single currency and the works.

That was a fate not worth having, and while perhaps the Swiss/Norway/EFTA model could have offered the best of both worlds, the binary nature of the vote, coupled with Britain’s opportunities in the Commonwealth, alongside how sclerotic and tired the EU had become led me to vote out.

Sadly, since the by and large never really believed in , that Leave vote has turned out to be symbolic rather than substantive. Yet, with a government which had confidence in the UK and its future beyond a tired EU, the benefits of could actually be realised.

Sadly, Sir ‘s government is even less willing to realise this potential than the , and even more likely to want to drag the UK back in through the side entrance.

Yet what on earth would Britain gain from returning to an EU which cannot defend itself, wants to regulate tech to death rather than lead in it, and whose economy is barely growing?

Beyond Brussels is a burgeoning Commonwealth plus a “CANZUK four” of Australia, Canada and New Zealand and the UK which not only share a king, language and legal system, but which combined would be the world’s largest polity and third largest economy.

In an era where cultural proximity outpaces geographic proximity, why would the UK wish to tie itself to a bloc of geriatric ex-imperial powers bandying together to somehow stay relevant?

Under Sir Keir, Britain risks a similar fate of irrelevance and sclerosis. It need not be this way. Commonwealth aside, Britain has its superstar universities to develop the growth technologies of tomorrow, an advantage the forlorn EU sorely lacks.

Perhaps the UK could have had its cake and eaten it with EFTA, able to rebuild its Commonwealth future while keeping some trade links with the EU, rather as the Swiss have. But, in the post- era, it is time for Britain to cut the apron strings and make a new future for itself entirely.

Not simply a bridge between Brussels and Washington, nor aching to join itself at the hip to either, the UK should seize the moment for a third and more dynamic option, forging its own path alongside the Commonwealth Realms and republics.