Tony Blair helped broker labour leader Kier Starmer’s recent meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron as part of secret plan to ‘reverse Brexit’
According to a Whitehall source, the former prime minister planned the meeting to coincide with the unveiling of the EU’s ‘associate membership’ scheme which France apparently wants the UK to be part of.
The source claimed that Blair is convinced that “Brexit is now a vote-winner” for the Labour party and is pushing his successor to open the door to reversing it.
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“Blair is trying to convince Starmer that the more he edges towards saying Brexit is a disaster, the better Labour will do”, the source said, adding “He believes that reversing Brexit can be a vote-winner and he is pushing that message very hard.”
Sir Tony and Labour both declined to comment last night.
The Mail Online reports: The ‘associate membership’ proposal, championed by Paris and Berlin, would involve Britain observing EU law and accepting a form of free movement in return for access to the single market.
One EU source said the deal had been drawn up with Labour in mind and was ‘carefully balanced politically to be a potential place for Britain without the need to ever rejoin the EU or to hold a referendum’.
Sir Keir, who campaigned for a second referendum, has denied he wants to take Britain back into the EU or the single market, saying only that he wants a ‘closer’ relationship and believes he can get a ‘much better’ deal with Brussels.
But senior Tories warned he was preparing to take Britain back into the EU by the back door.
Former business secretary Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg said: ‘Keir Starmer has always been a starry-eyed Europhile, he’s the champion of the second referendum, and now he wants to do it by stealth.’
Health Secretary Steve Barclay said: ‘Starmer’s position is quite remarkable. He said he would respect the Brexit deal. Now he wants to reopen the Brexit deal.
‘Now he wants to give control of immigration policy to the EU – let them decide who comes into the country.
‘The EU themselves are saying he’d have to rejoin the single market. So the position he’s setting out, once again, is a flip-flop.
‘It’s clearly not consistent – he keeps changing his mind on what he wants.
‘We’re clear we’ve got a deal on Brexit and we want to move forward.
‘Starmer seems in the past to have called for a second referendum. Now he wants to go the full distance and reopen the deal.’
The idea of a ‘multi-speed’ Europe has been championed by Mr Macron as a way of rapidly enlarging the bloc. Under the proposals, Britain could join the third tier as an ‘associate member’.
The UK would not have to sign up to ‘ever closer union’ and would pay a reduced membership fee. But it would have to accept the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice and accept free movement in return for access to the single market.
A document commissioned by France and Germany stated: ‘The basic requirement would be the commitment to comply with the EU’s common principles and values, including democracy and the rule of law.
‘The cost areas of participation would be the single market.’
Associate members would be able to raise issues at the European Commission and European Parliament – but would have no voting rights on EU laws.
The document said the plans could offer a new form of membership ‘for even the UK’.
Labour declined to comment on whether Sir Keir had discussed the proposal with Mr Macron.
A Labour spokesman said Sir Keir would use a planned review in 2025 to improve the Brexit deal, but added: ‘Labour will seek a better deal for Britain. This does not involve any form of membership.’
After the discussions, Sir Keir said the talks with the French president had been ‘very political’.
