With British industry faltering, the excuse that the public wants this is risible. Parliament must force Starmer to act
W
hile Keir Starmer fiddles in India, Rome burns. The British steel industry now faces a calamity so severe, insiders say it could be “terminal”. The vast majority – 80% – of its output is exported to the EU, which this week revealed plans to cut tariff-free steel import quotas by almost half. The remainder will be subject to a 50% tariff. The UK steel industry will be butchered. Thank you, EU. Thank you, Brexit.
Whenever I meet politicians who championed Brexit nowadays, I ask them a simple question: do you still think you were right? A few fools mutter, “Yes, on balance” and “In the long term, perhaps.” The honest ones shrug and look uncomfortable. We can all accept that some day a new generation of British politicians will resume open trade across the Channel. It is normal for an island, and makes sense. So I ask the honest ones: why not go public? Make a headline, stand up, apologise and get the ball rolling? None has done so.
In May, Starmer timidly negotiated a “Brexit reset” with Brussels. This injected pockets of sanity into increasingly chaotic border controls, especially on food. A few more EU students whom Brexit had crassly restricted may be admitted, along with a new e-gate for passport entry. There must still be checks – they start rolling out from this Sunday – to enforce the rule limiting Britons to no more than a quarter of any 12-month period inside the Schengen area. Further resets are mooted in coming years.
