Keir Starmer agrees with Leave voters’ ‘basic case’ for Brexit despite backing Remain

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said he agreed with the “basic case” made by many Leave supporters during the 2016 Brexit referendum.

Sir Keir said he understood the desire for more “control” from those who wanted the UK to quit the EU, despite his own backing for the Remain campaign.

“During the Brexit referendum I argued for Remain. But I couldn’t disagree with the basic case that many leave voters made to me,” the Labour leader said in a speech on constitutional reform on Monday.

Sir Keir added: “They wanted more control over their lives, they wanted more control over their country. They wanted to create opportunities for the next generation, build communities they felt proud of, have public services they could rely on.

“And I know that in the Scottish referendum in 2014, many of those who voted Yes did so for similar reasons. The same frustration at a Westminster system that seems remote.”

Earlier on Monday, asked if rejoining the EU single market would boost economic growth, Sir Keir told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “No, at this stage I don’t think it would.”

Pressed on whether re-joining the single market in future could boost growth, he said: “No … We left, and having left, there is no case now for saying, ‘Go back’. And going into the single market and customs union, we’ve had this debate endlessly over the years, 2016 to 2019, is effectively going back in.”

The Labour leader, accused by the SNP of trying to “out-Brexit” the Tories, added: “There is no case for going back to the EU or going back into the single market. I do think there’s a case for a better Brexit.”

Sir Keir said it was possible to improve on the existing hard Brexit deal with a new veterinary agreement for agri-food products, and called for a comprise to resolve the Northern Ireland Protocol row. “There is a whole host of ways to move forward to a better set of arrangements,” he said.

The Labour leader set out plans to abolish the House of Lords on Monday – promising “the biggest ever transfer of power from Westminster to the British people”.

Gordon Brown joined Sir Keir to unveil the report of the party’s commission on the UK’s future – which the ex-premier headed – at a joint press conference in Leeds.

Mr Starmer hinted that some of the measures – including a new democratic assembly of nations and regions to replace the Lords – may have to wait for a second term Labour government.

Asked if scrapping an unelected Lords could be done in one term, Sir Keir told BBC Breakfast: “I’m very keen that all of the recommendations in the report are carried out as quickly as possible.”

The Labour leader also told Sky News on Monday that he hoped it could be carried out in the first term of a Labour government.

He said all the recommendations in the report, including the proposal to abolish the Lords, are “deliberately written in a way that means they can be implemented within the first five years of a Labour government”.

Despite claims of a rift with Mr Brown over the radical plan to abolish the Lords, Sir Keir made clear he agreed that the “indefensible” Lords should be replaced with an elected second chamber.

Mr Brown told the press conference that many had voted for Brexit and for Scottish independence because they believed it was the “only chance of change” – saying Labour was now “offering change within the UK”.

Among the Brown report’s 40 recommendations is a call to give local communities new powers over skills, transport, planning and culture to drive growth.

New powers over transport, infrastructure, development and planning – including compulsory purchase orders on vacant sites – would be handed to the devolved administrations, the mayors and local authorities.

The report also proposes a series of measures to clean up politics including a new anti-corruption agency, an integrity and ethics commission and a ban on most second jobs for MPs.

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Mr Brown said there was a feeling many in the Lords were there “simply because they have been friends with the Conservative Party and not because of their contribution to public policy”.

He added: “Every second chamber in the world, with very few exceptions, is relatively small and usually smaller than the first chamber. And we’ve now got a House of Lords that has got 830 members … Therefore the current system is indefensible.”

Sir Keir said it would be “complete and utter nonsense” for the Tories to suggest he is playing politics with topics only relevant in Westminster.

The Labour leader said he is “not interested, frankly” in what the Tories have to say. “They’ve had 12 years, and I don’t think anybody hand on heart could say we’ve landed in a good place,” he said.

Sir Keir also said it was unlikely that his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn – suspended over his response to an independent report into antisemitism in the party – will be a Labour candidate at the general election.

“I don’t see the circumstances that Jeremy Corbyn will stand at the next election as a Labour MP,” he said on the independent MP for Islington North.

Rishi Sunak’s official spokesperson told reporters the government was already doing “a great deal” to provide more powers to local areas and had a programme to move 22,000 civil service jobs out of London by the end of the decade.

Responding to Mr Brown’s proposal to abolish the House of Lords, the PM’s spokesperson said: “The House of Lords plays an important and valuable role in scrutinising and revising legislation.

“The government is committed to looking at the role of the Lords but that needs to be done with very careful consideration and looked at in the round. So we will continue to to keep that under review.”

The PM’s spokesperson said that MPs’ “primary job” must be to serve their constituents and the government backs recommendation from the Committee on Standards in Public Life to ban paid work as strategists, advisers or consultants.

But he added: “Outside interests and experience outside of Westminster also bring benefits, so long as there are appropriate safeguards.”