In a significant statement of intent, Health Secretary Wes Streeting has nailed his colours to the mast over the weekend – making no bones about his desire to see the UK develop a ‘closer trading relationship’ with Europe. He also branded Brexit as a ‘massive economic hit’.
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Wes Streeting backs benefits of EU membership
The forthright utterances, shared with The Observer, could also end up setting him apart from Keir Starmer on this topic. Although the Prime Minister has been working to ‘reset’ relations with the EU, many supporters have been frustrated by the slow pace and lack of depth in recent negotiations.
But after rejoining the Erasmus scheme earlier this week, the Labour government has taken a very broad step towards a closer alignment with the trading bloc it split from so acrimoniously in 2016. Streeting, however, believes that Britain can go much further.
The needle for public support of Brexit has shifted dramatically over the last decades. Recent research has revealed a set of horrifying financial figures, exposing the tens of billions of pounds the UK has lost in trade and investment since the contentious referendum result.
“We have taken a massive economic hit from Brexit”
In fact, one study estimates that ‘millions of senior voters’ who backed the Leave campaign have passed away in the last decade, dramatically erasing the support base for Brexit.
Streeting has certainly picked up on this shift in sentiment, and has hailed the benefits of being in both the EU’s single market AND customs union…
“We’re asking a lot of individual taxpayers, we’re asking a lot of businesses. We’ve got a level of indebtedness that we need to take very seriously. The best way for us to get more growth into our economy is a deeper trading relationship with the EU. We have taken a massive economic hit from Brexit.”
“The reason why leaving the EU hit us so hard as a country is because of the enormous economic benefits that came with being in the single market and the customs union. This is a country and a government that wants a closer trading relationship with Europe.” | Wes Streeting