A senior British Labour peer and former European Commissioner for Trade has broken ranks on Brexit, suggesting talks on reversing the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union could happen in 10 years’ time.
Lord Mandelson, the former fixer for ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair — and dubbed “the Prince of Darkness” by the media — told an audience at the Reform Scotland thinktank annual lecture that undoing Brexit “could be a conversation that starts in 10 years’ time”.
This view is at odds with Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who previously insisted that such talks would not happen in his lifetime.
“It could be longer, but the beginning of a conversation is not the end of that; it’s not the resolution of our relationship to the European Union,” the life peer said.
Lord Mandelson suggested in the October 11 speech that the damage caused to UK productivity by leaving the European Union and the need to mitigate that kept Brexit relevant.
“The very hard Brexit forced through by Boris Johnson means that we are for now driving with the economic handbrake on – we can’t let that handbrake off. It is what it is,” he said.
“It is difficult to see this being reversed within the next decade. That’s not just about our politics but the politics of the European Union. We are repeating the mistakes of the Brexit economic saboteurs if we think re-entry to the EU or even renegotiation is anything like a unilateral decision on our part. It isn’t.”
“So the new government will have to focus in the meantime on mitigating the higher barriers we have created to our nearest and largest market as best we possibly can.”
He added that while EU officials had tired of the Brexit argument, there could be a route back towards membership.
“I speak to you as a former member of the Commission, as a member of the Brussels elite, I think it’ll be very hard to persuade people in the European Union to revisit, to re-engage and start getting into another negotiation about Britain’s membership of the European Union, for a long time to come,” he said.
“I’m sorry to say that but they have had it up to here with us.
“Now does that mean to say we can and should do nothing? Of course not. We’ve got to build trust, mutual respect. We’ve got to identify areas where we can cooperate and collaborate. Defence and security is an example; we’ve got to find ways to mitigate the trade costs that we’re incurring.
Lord Mandelson said any talk of a Brexit reversal would also depend on several external factors.
“It just depends on how things develop amongst the member states of the European Union as well as our own,” he said.
“It depends on how successfully we rebuild the foundations. It also depends on what’s going on in the rest of the world, what’s going on in the rest of Europe that might actually make us converge a bit more. What happens in the United States that might bring Europe further together, quicker than we think.”
The Labour peer’s suggestion is at odds with those of the PM who made his view on rejoining the EU while campaigning prior to June’s general election. When asked if there would be any circumstances where the UK would rejoin the single market or the customs union within his lifetime, Sir Keir replied: “No, I don’t think that that is going to happen.”
“I’ve been really clear about not rejoining the EU, the single market, or the customs union, or returning to freedom of movement,” he added.
