Public Opinion suggests most want to re-join the European Union, will Labour offer a route back?

Interview with Dr Steve McCabe, Associate Professor at Birmingham City University

Transcript

00:00You know, Brexit was supposed to open up all these new trade avenues to countries outside

00:06of the EU.

00:07And of course, by and large, it hasn't done so.

00:09And I think particularly of America, that was supposed to be the land of opportunity

00:14for the UK.

00:16And as I say, it has not transpired.

00:19And indeed, again, I also add and recognize that the EU as a global entity, it's the world's

00:26largest trading bloc.

00:28But its significance is somewhat lessened.

00:30The world is altering.

00:32But beyond all of that, we cannot deny that to effectively impose trade sanctions on ourselves,

00:39which is what Brexit has effectively done, and to make it more difficult to trade with

00:44the largest trading bloc on our doorstep, literally just across the sea, swim across

00:50the Channel, it was quite ludicrous.

00:54And I think in history, we'll sort of judge it as being a sort of a pretty strange decision.

00:59Why would you do this to yourselves?

01:00But hey, there were a whole lot of other emotions that sort of came into this.

01:04But the bottom line, I still come back to is that people want to believe that they have

01:08a better future for themselves here and now, and their children, the future.

01:13Recent opinion polls indicate a growing trend amongst UK citizens in favor of rejoining

01:20the European Union.

01:22The most recent poll by Omnisys suggested 60% of respondents now support rejoining the

01:30EU, perhaps reflecting increasing disillusionment with Brexit's outcomes.

01:37Keir Starmer has been, you know, I can't say in a way that he was emphatic, you know, he

01:43promised that there would not be any sort of rejoining, or indeed even sort of going

01:47to the single European market.

01:49From his perspective, it was so toxic during the campaign and the referendum when he was

01:54the Brexit secretary.

01:56So I think he doesn't want to revisit that.