Why won't the Tories stop flogging Brexit?

Jon Sopel (0:02)

This is a Global Production. Sticking with the status quo is not good enough for Britain.

Worse, it would be a major dereliction of duty to turn away. We need to take a calm, clear-eyed, rational look at the world as it is today to consider what is best for our country. Our immediate priority is securing a successful outcome at the summit, and I believe we should then set up a serious dialogue about the different options for our relationship in the long term. At every stage, the British public will be the boss, and I am clear that public opinion currently supports a pragmatic approach like the one I am suggesting.

Emily Maitlis (0:45)

That is Labour saying the status quo is not good enough as they run towards the EU debate, a debate the Tories are shutting down.

Lewis Goodall (0:57)

Yes, they are saying just leave this as it is. Is Kemi Badenoch backing the right horse on this? We will be speaking to her closest advisor.

Welcome to The News Agents.

Jon Sopel (1:12)

The News Agents It's Jon.

Emily Maitlis (1:14)

It's Maitlis.

Lewis Goodall (1:15)

And the House of Commons is back after the summer pause, the party conferences and all the rest of it. And I wouldn't have bet when Andy Burnham took over that the first thing that we'd be hearing a statement on would be kind of Brexit where we are now, whether it's time to go back into the European Union. But broadly speaking, the Brexit debate is alive and kicking 10 years after Britain left the European Union. And Andy Burnham is very consciously promoting this debate, thinking that Britain could do better than what it's currently got in its relationship with the EU and seems very keen that this debate should happen, even though everyone will know the perils involved in all of it. On the Tory benches, it's, can we just leave this alone, please? This has caused enough pain, division, heartache, bitterness, anger and division in British society over the past 10 years. Haven't we got to a place where we can just let this be?

And that seems to be broadly speaking, the dividing line between the two main parties in the Commons over this.

Emily Maitlis (2:20)

I think that's right. I mean, I think that Andy Burnham will quickly discover the voices in his own party, also saying, can you just let it be? I was talking to Maurice Glassman, who's famously blue labour, very pro-Brexit, very anti-immigration, the weekend. And he was saying, again, a foolish move that Andy Burnham's doing, trying to overrule what feels like the voice of the British people. And I was also chairing a panel with the deputy leader of the Conservative Party, Alex Burkhardt, and he made pretty clear to me that the Conservatives would roll back any moves that Andy Burnham, that Labour make. And I do think that's a really interesting sort of clearing of the waters now between Labour and the Tories, or between, you know, let's say the Prime Minister and those in opposition. Because I was talking to a very senior Conservative who said to me they were really surprised when Stammer was in power that he hadn't taken this bold early step of rejoining the Customs Union. Customs Union doesn't need to kind of cross the line on freedom of movement. And the senior Conservatives said it would have boosted the economy within a couple of years, so it could have done it, you know, straight out the traps in 2024

And then it would have put the Tories in this invidious position of saying, well, I know you don't like reopening the Brexit debate, but what are you going to do? Are you going to roll back on this? Are you going to be anti-Customs Union? Are you going to make an enemy of the business community for the sake of your kind of Red Wall seats, Red Wall MPs who pretty much don't exist anymore? And I think that's the place that we have got to now. We can see the shape of who Kemi Badenoch is trying to attract and the people that she's trying to attract, if a conference speech is anything to go by, are the sort of pretty southern, pretty prosperous.

I mean, there's this phrase that's doing the rounds now, which is waitress woman. You know, you don't have to be a millionaire, but it helps. The people of the South, maybe the prosperous Lib Dems, maybe the people who don't really like where Labour sits on tax anymore, but wanted to give Keir Starmer a chance. And into that, there are a lot of remainers. So this idea that Kemi Badenoch, who according to the polls out today, now is sitting in second place with her party, behind Labour, but above reform, why is she choosing to make this such a sticking point? Does she really believe the democratic mandate of Brexit is more important than a recouping, if you like, of the economic losses that it has cost us so far?