Boris Johnson’s former wife has urged Keir Starmer to “put right what went wrong” with Brexit by going even further than his ‘reset’ with the European Union.
Human rights lawyer Marina Wheeler KC is writing a book arguing that Britain should embrace Brussels and develop a closer relationship with the bloc.
The book, unveiled on Wednesday, calls for a “more radical” strategy than the government’s current plans, saying “Europe is once again central to Britain’s future,” according to the Telegraph.
It comes after Boris Johnson labelled Keir Starmer an “orange ball-chewing manacled gimp of Brussels” after making a landmark deal with the EU in a bid for better British jobs, lower bills, and more secure borders.
Her publisher told the newspaper that the book would liken the Brexit agreement, negotiated by her former husband, to a marital separation, saying: “Like a court order in a divorce, the Brexit deal contains our bare legal obligations.
“Yet as dangerous forces gather and global technologies stoke animosity, we have a wider duty. If Britain and Europe can’t work together, what chance do democracy and the rule of law have?”
Wheeler said: “Nearly 10 years after Britain voted to leave the EU, the unstable state of the world is clear to us all.
“Less obvious is the extraordinary opportunity this presents to put right what went wrong before and build a Europe we can together defend.”
The human rights lawyer revealed in 2021 that she divorced Johnson after 25 years, saying the “whole business was grim”.
The blurb of her latest book reads: “Labour aims for a ‘reset’. Barrister and mediator Marina Wheeler proposes something more radical: a roadmap towards a meaningful rapprochement.
“In A More Perfect Union, she tackles the political anxieties and identity crises on both sides of the Channel, and makes the case that transforming this relationship is now critical if our fundamental political liberties are to survive another generation.”
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