Andy Burnham wants to undo Brexit because he’s given on the supply side reforms Britain needs for growth, says Joseph Dinnage
October is always grim. The temperature drops, the rain begins and the darkness sets in. This month is poised to be even drearier than usual. In a week’s time, we’ll have John Healey’s first Budget.
Healey will struggle to make up the difference. Cue tax rises. Expected announcements include higher taxes on banks, online retailers and a fuel duty hike. The government has given up on a domestic growth strategy. Supply-side reform and trimming the state are nowhere to be seen. Perhaps that explains its infatuation with the European Union.
It came as no shock to anyone when in his keynote address at the annual Labour Party conference, Andy Burnham set out his plan for closer relations with the bloc.
The Prime Minister asserted that we need to move past the Brexit ‘status quo’ and seriously reexamine our place in Europe to stimulate economic growth.
How disingenuous. As we saw with the ill-fated Welfare Bill, the truth is that the Prime Minister is throwing in his lot with the EU because his MPs are incapable of voting for the necessary domestic policies which would boost British prosperity. What we will get instead under the government’s EU ‘reset’ is a regulator’s charter that will set us back in the progress we have made in developing the industries of the future. Hugging Brussels closer is probably the one thing Burnham can get most of his MPs to agree upon.
Brexit is an AI opportunity
Despite the previous government failing to diverge from EU orthodoxy as much as one might hope, being independent of the EU has come with a host of opportunities. One of the great benefits of Brexit has been our ability to push ahead with a sensible, independent regime for artificial intelligence outside the EU. Britain’s AI sector is currently much more agile and start-up-friendly than Europe’s, largely due to the EU AI Act, a top-down diktat which has stifled native innovation. It is no wonder that Britain’s AI businesses attracted more investment in the last six months than the entirety of the EU’s AI economy in the same time.
Our small businesses would feel the pain of rejoining the EU acutely. The EU’s regulations on packaging are putting up trade barriers within Europe rather than bringing them down, making it unviable for SMEs to sell across the continent, and new green regulations like ETS 2 are adding carbon taxes to road transport and construction. Why add taxes like that onto our economy at a time of growing inflation?
The warning signs for Britain’s future if we were to rejoin are everywhere. Just look at France and Germany. The bloc’s two major players both face high energy costs, sluggish growth, low productivity and ageing populations. Sound familiar? It is illogical to suggest that by reshackling ourselves to Brussels, our problems would somehow disappear. It certainly has not been the case for some of the Continent’s largest economies, so why would it be any different for us? Besides, outside of the EU we at least have the opportunity to implement policies that would improve our lot. Not that this Government shows any signs of taking it.
Of course, there is also the small matter of democracy. Just because Burnham thinks leaving the EU was the wrong decision does not entitle him to overturn the democratic will of millions of voters.
Britain needs growth. Burnham knows it. Healey knows it. We all know it. Rejoining the EU would be retrograde and undemocratic act of economic self-harm. It would be no replacement for pursuing policies here at home which – while flying in the face of Labour’s worst instincts – would improve life for all of us. It will take courage, but the government must act in the national interest, not that of its socialist backbenchers.