Boris Johnson claims UK can be ‘sucked into EU orbit’ beneath Labour

Boris Johnson has claimed the UK can be “gravitationally sucked again into the orbit of the EU” beneath a Labour authorities.

The previous prime minister mentioned an “attention-grabbing state of affairs” would emerge beneath a Sir Keir Starmer-led administration.

He’ll make the declare on a new talk show hosted by his former culture secretary Nadine Dorries, who aggressively backed him when his scandal-hit premiership got here to an finish final summer time.

Starmer campaigned for Stay within the 2016 referendum after which called for a second referendum within the subsequent years of constitutional turmoil. Nevertheless, since turning into Labour chief in 2020, he has repeatedly dominated out rejoining the EU.

This week, David Lammy, considered one of his senior shadow cupboard members, additionally mentioned rejoining the EU was not an choice – however that Labour would “fix the Tories’ bad Brexit deal” brokered by Johnson.

Johnson’s full interview will air on TalkTV on Friday. In quotes reported by The Sun, which like TalkTV is owned by Information UK, Johnson will say of the UK-EU relationship beneath a Labour authorities: “I believe that you simply’d have a really attention-grabbing state of affairs, they might be gravitationally sucked again into the orbit of the EU.

“I believe that may be very improper for the nation.

Watch: A Labour authorities would ‘repair the unhealthy Tory Brexit deal’, says David Lammy

“It could lose us loads of alternatives that we at the moment have.”

In his speech on Wednesday, shadow international secretary Lammy mentioned Labour would take motion to reverse the “injury” the present UK-EU commerce deal is doing to the British economic system, whereas additionally restoring European relations.

He added: “It has been a central precept of British technique for hundreds of years that we must always by no means discover ourselves remoted in our personal continent. However that’s precisely what this authorities has accomplished.”

Three years on from the UK’s departure, the Northern Eire Protocol, signed off by Johnson as a part of his Brexit deal, stays a key supply of pressure between the UK and the EU as the 2 sides bid to discover a resolution.

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The row over the protocol, which unionists say creates a border between Northern Eire and the remainder of the UK, successfully led to the collapse of energy sharing in Stormont.

In the meantime, Michel Barnier, who was the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, in the present day refused to acknowledge errors had been made on the EU’s facet, with Eire’s prime minister Leo Varadkar conceding earlier this month that the protocol is “too strict” and errors had been made on all sides throughout negotiations.

Talking on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg present, Barnier mentioned: “I believe we [left] a sure variety of factors open for the dialogue. I do not suppose [you] can converse of errors.”