Labour’ position on Europe has hardened. Last week Douglas Alexander said, ‘Our task is to tell a new story about Britain and Europe’. It was a clear signal to the public that Labour will take a much more hard-headed approach to the European Union. ‘We shouldn’t dust off the old arguments’ he told the Guardian newspaper. In other words – it’s time to rip it up and start again. No longer will Labour unquestionably follow the pro-EU agenda. We will no longer be a soft touch.
Alexander was being careful not to sound too negative and was at pains to point out that the EU was generally a good thing, but he is clearly tired of fending off the Eurosceptic right. It was an acknowledgment that the debate has moved on and that Labour needs to move with it. However, it is not clear yet how far removed the idea of ‘rebalancing’ is from the Conservative Eurosceptic case for repatriation of powers. It is inevitable that the EU’s constitutional architecture will need to be changed once more, but as Julian Priestley has said in an article for the Labour Movement in Europe, it is dangerous to think that any new eurozone treaty talks could somehow automatically trigger a series of opt-outs for non-eurozone members. It won’t. Roger Liddle writing for the Policy Exchange is also sceptical about Labour’s ‘re-balancing’.
The shift in tone, if not in substance, of Labour’s policy on Europe is not altogether surprising. When the sovereign debt crisis hit the eurozone, there was little choice other than to operate within a frame of public debate that became witheringly hostile to the EU.
First, Ed Balls attacked the Conservatives for not doing more to ‘protect’ the UK from contributing more to the IMF bailouts for eurozone economies. He also wanted the permanent stability mechanism to replace the European Financial Stability Facility as quickly as possible, so that the UK would no longer be part of any bailouts. This set a new negative tone from Labour. It also marked a U-turn from Alistair Darling’s support for the EFSF and the IMF.
Second, Brownite Labour was quick to claim credit for saving the UK from joining the euro. The crisis, they said, vindicated the decision by Gordon Brown to rule out membership until the economic conditions were right. None of us were expecting Ed Miliband to rush to the defence of the single currency. Even Nick Clegg and Alex Salmond heavily qualified their support. However, was it really necessary to trumpet this particular accomplishment? Again, tone is everything in politics. And in tone, we were not far off from the schadenfreude of the Conservative Eurosceptics.
Third, Labour has been explicit about where it would have confronted the consensus in the European Union were it in power. Douglas Alexander was vociferous in his complaints about a proposed increase in EU spending – despite commitments agreed by the Council and more fundamental concerns such as CAP reform. Likewise, he was quick to rule out a financial transaction tax despite strong support for it from Germany and France.
Labour was enthusiastic about the EU under Tony Blair, but in reality there has long been a strong Eurosceptic streak running through the party. Where the UK centre-right has its Little Englanders, the centre-left has its New Englanders – the Labour academics who have always felt more at home in the east coast retreat of Cape Cod with their English-speaking Democrat soulmates than in the congress halls of European capitals with politicians who still call themselves socialists.
Eurosceptism has deep roots in the Labour party – going back to the early years of Neil Kinnock’s leadership. The Conservatives under Edward Heath – and then Margaret Thatcher – showed much more enthusiasm. It was only when the then Commission President Jacques Delors gave his speech about social Europe to the Trade Union Congress in 1988 that Labour embraced the pro-Europe cause. Only days before in Bruges, Thatcher gave her defining Eurosceptic speech. The worm had turned.
Could it turn again? The signs are there that Labour is preparing to take a less friendly position on the EU, while the Conservative-led coalition government is desperate to put the euro-rebels back in their box.
However, there are encouraging signs that Labour’s policy response to the eurozone crisis does not amount to ‘out and out’ Eurosceptism. Indeed, Ed Miliband made the right decision not to call a free vote on the ‘in-out-shake it all about’ referendum.
Alexander’s ‘mature patriotism’ is a worthy contribution to the debate. It is clear-sighted and thoughtful. In the right hands, it could develop into an effective narrative. Thankfully, Alexander has the support of the formidable Emma Reynolds, newly appointed shadow Europe minister, to help him. But ‘mature patriotism’ will lose all credibility if it is opportunistic. Labour must have a sustainable solution not just for eurozone governance but also for an emerging multispeed Europe. Mature patriotism should not mean that we can only win the European game if we dig in and refuse to yield to our European neighbours.
Mature patriotism should be about being a reliable partner in difficult times. It is also about engaging constructively and being critical if we need to be. ‘The wounds of a friend are faithful’ – Labour can and should attack the status quo because it is in the national and European interest to do so, not because it is an easy thing to do.
Alexander must do three things if he wants his new policy to work. First, he must be clear that the UK should take a lead role in making the single market work in the interests of jobs and growth. Second, he should recognize the growing importance of pan-European centre-left parties, and third – and most importantly – he must hit the road and sell Labour’s positive message on Europe to party members. The membership should be consulted so that it can understand better the fundamental reasons for taking an active and constructive approach to the European Union.
I agree with Alexander. It is time to tell a new story about Britain and Europe, Let’s be sure to tell to tell the whole story. Party members and the wider public deserve nothing less.
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Kevin Doran is MD of Grayling Public Affairs in Brussels and is on the Advisory Board of Nucleus. He writes here in a personal capacity
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