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He called for an extension of a theme in Starmer’s speech about a new partnership with business to cover the immediate concerns of every industry “from fishing to finance” as a result of the severe limitations of the government’s trade deal with the EU. Photograph: House of Commons/PAīut pressure is now building on Starmer and his shadow cabinet to lay out a vision of how he would try to improve access to the EU single market – the UK biggest export market – after it emerged that thousands of UK firms that export to the bloc are struggling with extra costs and bureaucracy, driving many to invest in warehouses and subsidiaries on the continent, while scaling down and laying off staff in the UK.Īt a special meeting of the parliamentary party before Starmer’s speech, Neil Coyle, the MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark, said Labour should make a “land grab” to become the party of business, given how damaging Brexit had been to trade. Green Party MP Caroline Lucas said Keir Starmer’s speech ‘beggared belief’. None of the shadow cabinet or frontbench team have made a speech in parliament on the issues affecting UK businesses. Since 1 January Starmer has not raised Brexit or problems caused by it once at PMQs, and interventions on the issue from backbenchers have been rare. He added that Starmer was “terrified” of offending voters in red wall seats in the Midlands and north where pro-Brexit voters deserted Labour at the 2019 election. With difficulties for UK exporters continuing and problems over the Irish protocol unresolved, one member of Starmer’s frontbench team said that attempts to “brush the problems under the carpet just because we wrongly voted for Johnson’s deal in December is pretty close to negligence”. Several sources said that MP Carolyn Harris, Starmer’s parliamentary aide with responsibility for coordinating with Labour members – including on what questions they ask at prime minister’s questions – had been discouraging interventions on Brexit, saying they would damage the leader. We are being told that Keir wants to move on and that if we mention the B-word let alone suggest we a need better deal with the EU than Boris Johnson’s we are being unhelpful.” “The order that is coming out is: ‘don’t mention the war’. One senior backbencher said the message from the top was very clear – that there should be virtual “radio silence” on the issue. The Tories delivered a last-minute mess of a Brexit with damaging consequences, not least to stability on the island of Ireland.” Hain told the Observer: “It’s quite understandable that Brexit has not been top of Labour’s agenda, but it’s not sustainable to ignore this elephant in the room hurting British businesses, our vital performing arts sector, our security and our foreign policy reach.