Ten years after the Brexit vote reshaped British politics, the anniversary has opened a fresh front line at Westminster: Labour is warning that Nigel Farage poses a “threat to national security”, while the Reform UK leader insists the political establishment has squandered the “freedom” he says leaving the EU was meant to unlock.
Marking the decade since the referendum to leave the European Union, cabinet office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds used the moment to target one of the most prominent figures of the Leave campaign. He said Mr Farage’s outlook was “sympathetic” to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Mr Farage, meanwhile, accused a string of senior politicians — former prime minister Boris Johnson, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and Prime Minister Keir Starmer — of missing what he called the message from the country’s “forgotten places”, where voters had wanted a “fairer deal” for the UK.
The argument over where Britain goes next with Europe has intensified in recent weeks, after the outgoing prime minister placed closer links with Brussels at the heart of his promised “reset” following Labour’s electoral drubbing in May.
Reform leader Nigel Farage claimed the UK needs a government that will ‘deliver’ on Brexit
Against that backdrop, Andy Burnham — seen by many as a prime minister-in-waiting following his Makerfield by-election win and Mr Starmer’s resignation as party leader — has promised not to “re-run” past Brexit battles.
Mr Burnham has played down any immediate prospect of reversing the 2016 result, while saying he would like to see the UK back in the EU within his lifetime.
At an event hosted by the UK in a Changing Europe think tank, Mr Thomas-Symonds, the EU relations minister, is expected to argue for what he calls a hard-headed approach to Europe as a way to safeguard British homes in an increasingly volatile world.
He sharpened his attack on Mr Farage by pointing to the Reform leader’s past comments on Ukraine, accusing him of having “consistently supported Russia, and tried to pretend that our interests could ever align with a dictator’s”.
Writing in the Telegraph ahead of the event, he said: “From declaring in 2014 that ‘I think the European Union, frankly, does have blood on its hands in the Ukraine’, and that he didn’t want a ‘European foreign policy’, to suggesting in 2024 that NATO and the EU’s ‘eastward expansion’ gave a reason for Putin to ‘go to war’.
“His rationale for doing so, it seems, has been to ultimately undermine the favourability of the European Union. So consumed with being anti-Europe, engrossed by an ideological necessity for separation, he has chosen to fall on one side of a worldview. The wrong side.”
He added: “Allowing a worldview sympathetic to Putin to hold the balance of power would be an unprecedented threat to national security.”
Mr Farage, the MP for Clacton, said Westminster had repeatedly turned a deaf ear to voters who wanted, in his words, “to take control of our borders, take control of our laws, and deliver the growth they so desperately needed”.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer sought stronger ties with the EU during his time in charge
In a post on his Substack due to go live at 10am, he says: “I’ve always said that Brexit is a necessary step towards saving the country. But on its own, it’s nowhere near sufficient.
“It needs a government that will deliver on the freedom it gave us to drag our heads back above the water. It needs a government that will listen.
“The anger and frustration felt by the British people, the anger and distrust in the Westminster class, is a result of the utter failure of that same political class to pay attention to what it was told.
“To take control of our borders, take control of our laws, and deliver the growth they so desperately needed. These desires were ignored. And so was the optimism of the 2016 vote.”
Mr Farage argued that neither the Conservatives nor Labour were “up to the challenge” of fulfilling what he described as the referendum’s promise.
From the Liberal Democrats, leader Ed Davey pressed Mr Burnham — widely viewed as the frontrunner to succeed Mr Starmer — to back a return to the single market.
Although Mr Starmer pursued stronger ties with Brussels, he set out three “red lines” — returning to the customs union or the single market, and allowing free movement — which he promised during the 2024 election would not be crossed.
Mr Davey said: “This is a defining moment. If Andy Burnham wants to deliver the change the Labour Party promised, he needs to vote for our amendment to get Britain into the single market.
“This is the single most effective step we can take to turbocharge growth, tackle the cost-of-living crisis and fix the UK’s broken relationship with Europe.”
Elsewhere, plans for a UK-EU summit scheduled for 22 July were thrown into doubt following Mr Starmer’s announcement yesterday that he would stand down.
With Westminster in turmoil, the European Commission said it was “reassessing” whether the meeting would still take place.
Mr Davey earlier described the uncertainty hanging over the summit as “the cost of chaos for Britain”.
