New Times,
New Thinking.

  1. Politics
10 March 2015

Gordon Brown sounds a warning on Europe

Gordon Brown is worried that the pro-Europeans are blundering into a referendum defeat. He's not the only one. 

By Stephen Bush

It must be ex-Prime Ministers week. After Tony Blair popped back with a handy £106,000 to help Labour win the next election, Gordon Brown is in the Guardian this morning.  He says that pro-Europeans that they are in danger of sleepwalking into defeat in the In-Out referendum. 

Warning that Ukip’s anti-immigration focus has turned the European argument into a “culture war”, Brown warns:

Sadly we pro-Europeans are in danger of fighting with the wrong weapons: a worthy, London establishment-led corporate-financed fact-based campaign of “the great and the good”, whose commitment to Europe is admirable but whose prominence will be used by anti-Europeans to justify the allegation that Europe is for an elite who don’t understand the real Britain.”

He continues:

Laudable factsheets about trade or well-meaning manifestos on the minutiae of reform will be no match for the gut emotional appeal of claims that Europe is making Britain a foreign country. When you are fighting back in a culture war, you must take on one set of deeply felt beliefs with another set of deeply felt beliefs. ” 

Select and enter your email address Your weekly guide to the best writing on ideas, politics, books and culture every Saturday. The best way to sign up for The Saturday Read is via saturdayread.substack.com The New Statesman's quick and essential guide to the news and politics of the day. The best way to sign up for Morning Call is via morningcall.substack.com
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how Progressive Media Investments may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
THANK YOU

He’s not the only one. One of the reasons why senior members of the shadow Cabinet have held out against other frontbenchers who want to have an in-out is, as one put it: “We’re not in a position to fight it and win it at the moment.” A staffer describes her boss’ thinking like this: “We don’t want a referendum [on Europe] for the same reason we don’t want one on the death penalty: we’d lose it.”  And in the party at large there is alarm at the extent to which Labour and the wider pro-European campaign is not at the races.

The Out campaign has all-but-decided on its best line-up for the battle to come, and already exists in utero in the shape of Business for Britain, a sharp-elbowed and media-savvy think tank headed by Matthew Elliott that has quietly put together a team of able advocates for a European exit.  To make matters worse for pro-Europeans, it is likely that when the campaign moves out of cover it will be bolstered by veterans from the Taxpayers’ Alliance and the No to AV campaign – a sort of right-wing, anti-European version of the Avengers. As one pro-European Labour MP noted to me: “We already know how they’ll play it. A few useful idiots from our side, plenty of money from the Tory side, and a few seemingly apolitical figures while we run around talking about fishing rights.”

The official line is that, in the event of a Labour victory, the matter will not arise and, if the reverse happens, David Cameron will do the legwork of keeping Britain in the European Union. But as one insider notes: “It’s [an in-out referendum] a policy that gets you the support of the DUP, Ukip, a handful of monomaniac Tory MPs, our own Eurosceptics for a budget or a tricky confidence vote…it could be too difficult to resist.” It seems likely that, regardless of the outcome of the election, the pro-Europeans will have to fight an in-out referendum sooner rather than later. Troublingly, it lacks either a “set of deeply felt beliefs” or a charismatic champion in the battle to come.

Content from our partners
Can green energy solutions deliver for nature and people?
"Why wouldn't you?" Joining the charge towards net zero
The road to clean power 2030