The independence referendum in Scotland loomed large over last month’s European Union referendum. It became a convenient truth for Labour that one of the things that led to Scottish Labour’s current predicament was the cross-party nature of Better Together, the designated and official ‘No’ to independence campaign.
This was a truth manufactured by the Scottish National party and Labour’s hard left; it in turn entered general parlance. Voters would repeat this claim back at ‘No’ campaigners, often with great passion. It become symbolic.
There is, however, a chasm between the situation in Scotland which saw a united Better Together campaign and a barely existent ‘Labour No’ campaign and the more recent state of affairs of little-to-no cooperation between Stronger In and the separate ‘Labour In’ campaign – especially when the leader of the Labour party was uninterested in truly fighting to remain. On this Labour let itself and its voters down. Notable exceptions like Chuka Umunna, Sadiq Khan, Harriet Harman and Tessa Jowell worked with the designated cross-party campaign. As late as 10 June 2016, polling showed a net 21-point advantage of cross-party working among Labour voters and net five points with undecideds. The addition of Labour’s frontbench could well have made the difference.
Brexit has been as brutal on Labour as it has been on the strength of sterling. While a majority of Labour voters voted ‘Remain’ there is a faultline with our traditional voters in Wales, the Midlands and the north. Members of parliament like Alan Johnson and Emma Reynolds, who ably led the Labour In campaigns, saw decisive results for ‘Leave’ in their constituencies. So what should they, and Labour, do next?
First, Britain must leave. It would be our preference that there was still as close as possible a relationship with the single market, but given that the decision was to ‘take control’, this will be difficult. Those who hate ‘bossy Brussels’ would dislike the decrees from the commission that underpin the single market. Second, in light of the strength of feeling – and fictitious promises that were made by Vote Leave and Leave.EU – about immigration, a renewed relationship with the single market would have to come with a radically different offer on free movement. There is little appetite for this in Brussels and the other member states. Our relationship might, therefore, be more akin to that of Canada than Norway or Switzerland. But that is what the voters wanted; that is what they should get.
It is Progress’ view that there is no ‘progressive Brexit’. It cannot help but be noticed that the ‘Lexit’ – a leftwing Brexit – crowd have fallen silent. Gisela Stuart and John Mann have contributed to this edition, but otherwise the Labour Leave voices have largely drifted away from the national debate. Instead, we are in the hands of Brexiteers on the Tory right and in the United Kingdom Independence party.
Labour must set being back in Europe as its long-term goal – not only to draw the right lessons from Scotland, but because it what we believe. As interdependence grows, the case for international cooperation grows with it. Working with our closest neighbours is often tough, but it is always the right thing to do.
In the days following the result, an outpouring of emotion filled the streets and four million people and counting signed a petition for a second referendum. The decision must stand, but this energy must also be harnessed.
What was missing from Stronger In was any passion. The arguments for this are well known: a pitch to ‘on the balance of probabilities’ voters. And it so nearly worked. But our route back into Europe must be about heart, and culture, and opportunity. As Britain untangles itself from the world’s most successful peace project, benefits we took for granted will come to the fore. Pro-Europeans must be ready to seize those opportunities.
But our project must not be merely tactical. Even as ‘Project Fear’ gives way to ‘Project Understatement’, a second scare campaign will not work. As social democrats our arguments must be threefold.
First, stop the race to the bottom. The EU is the only multinational partnership for higher, not lower, standards. If you want inward investors to decide where to locate themselves based on the lowest standards – who has the lowest holiday entitlements, maternity leave, rights at work, consumer legal protections and environment benchmarks – then Brexit Britain is for you. If you do not want this, work with our neighbours.
Second, Britain is more powerful with others. Britain may have opted to ‘take control’ but it has lost control of the consequences of our decisions. The post-referendum markets and value of the pound make that point stronger than any prose. Protectionist nation-state social democracy is a contradiction in terms. Pollution, climate change and tax avoidance respect no borders. Only working with others can address these global phenomena. Barack Obama came here to argue that great countries do not hoard power, they cultivate it with others. Britain must want to do this again.
Third, the future is European. The EU must reform. No longer the administrator of farm subsidies but the creator of jobs, infrastructure and opportunities, its spending moving from cows, sheep and crops to science, technology and learning. Our universities have so much to lose from leaving, but with it go too opportunities for young people formally on programmes like Erasmus – and informally in the jobs that are never created, in the industries still to exist.
This is an opportunity for our politics to be passionate again; the answer to the role of Labour when there is no money around. It is an agenda for social democrats, to be open to our neighbours, to build a more progressive country.
The short run is rocky for Labour. But setting our sights on building a popular movement to rejoin the neighbourhood of nations with the consent of the British public will be the defining project of our generation. Reforms to free movement might be a necessary condition. The EU at the time would need to be generous to the idea of our re-entry. To make this so, and aim for a more progressive future, Labour must remain ‘Remain’.
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