A Labour frontbencher has taken a swipe at Nigel Farage for “burning the relationship with the European Union”, just as No10 is pushing for closer ties with the bloc.
The minister added the Government intends to “work more closely with our partners and allies in the European Union in this dangerous and turbulent world in which we live”.
Care Minister Stephen Kinnock, joining GB News this afternoon, endured a grilling from host from Martin Daubney over Labour’s U-turns: from winter fuel allowance to local election delays.
But Mr Kinnock brushed off the claim life has deteriorated under Labour, telling the presenter: “We’ve faced an extremely challenging situation, but the acid test of a Government is how it reacts to some of the events that take place.
“Politics is about events. It’s about being really focused on your strategy, getting your policies through, improving the lives of the British people…
“Dealing with the cost of living crisis, rebuilding our relationships with the European Union and that have been burned by people like Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson.”
Mr Farage spent years campaigning for the UK to leave the EU, then hailed the day of the referendum result as Britain’s “independence day”.
While votes were being counted, he told supporters: “We have fought against the multinationals, we have fought against the big merchant banks, we have fought against big politics, we have fought against lies, corruption and deceit.
Stephen Kinnock joined GB News this afternoon
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GB NEWS
“And today honesty, decency and belief in nation, I think now is going to win.”
But Mr Kinnock’s words come in the same week Labour is expected to turn up the heat on its efforts to be closer to Europe.
Business Secretary Peter Kyle is due to meet Brussels’s top brass to encourage the UK and Europe to be “united” after Donald Trump announced a 15 per cent global tariff on trading partners.
He is due to say both are “united by a shared mission to protect European supply chains from unfair practices, tariffs and dumping”, a Government spokesman said.
Nigel Farage on polling day in 2016
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GETTY
Last week, Sir Keir urged Britain and Europe to be stronger together of defence in the face of precarious geopolitics, addressing leaders at the Munich Security Conference.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference this morning, the Prime Minister told an audience of world leaders their parties were “soft on Russia” and “weak on Nato”, declaring the UK was no longer the “Britain of the Brexit years”.
Labour’s “Brexit reset” has stirred up frustration within the Brexiteering Conservatives and Reform UK. Both claim any policy reversing Brexit was a “betrayal” of the British people’s vote in 2016.
But a Labour source told Reform UK to “get a new gig”, instead of launching a tirade of criticism towards the deal, seeking to have closer ties with the bureaucratic body.
And, in negotiations with Sir Keir in January, the bloc made the demand any future British Government must cough up a sizeable sum if they wish to duck out of a post-Brexit “reset” deal.
The subsequently-dubbed “Farage clause” was hidden away in part of a potential EU-UK “veterinary agreement”, seen by the FT, which seeks to slash red tape for British food and drink exporters.
EU officials have admitted the addition was crafted to protect Brussels from the consequences of a Government led by the Brexit supremo.
However, chief adviser on global affairs to Reform UK, Alan Mendoza, told GB News: “I suspect there probably will be a legal challenge in the sense to say this is not a sensible policy approach for any Government to be taking, because of course, this is not something that people have approved.”