Sir Keir Starmer should consider rejoining the European Union to ease Britain’s economic woes and stop the small boat crisis, a Labour veteran has said.
Lord Kinnock, who led Labour from 1983 to 1992, argued that the UK’s decision to leave the Brussels bloc resulted in “huge self-inflicted losses”.
He said: said: “If we rejoined, we’d be able to get rid of the economic growth deficit, which is costing us £100billion a year, which means the government is losing £40billion in tax revenue.
“We can’t afford to carry on losing revenues on that scale or the investment in jobs that would go with that amount.
“We need to resume normality and be part of our continent again.
“It would hugely help our economy out at a time of desperate need in a major way.
Lord Kinnock added: “It wouldn’t be marginal, it would be about five per cent of GDP added to our economy.
“I think it has always been time to look at rejoining the EU.”
Sir Keir Starmer is facing growing pressure to rejoin the EU
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Lord Kinnock, who campaigned alongside Sir Keir for Britain to remain in the European Union in 2016, has made a number of interventions in an attempt to steer the Prime Minister leftwards.
The 83-year-old has called for a wealth tax, urged Rachel Reeves to put VAT on private healthcare and even demanded the UK hires more migrant workers to build houses.
Despite being seen as a steadfast Remainer when serving as Jeremy Corbyn’s Shadow Brexit Secretary, Sir Keir is now determined to keep the UK outside of the single market and customs union.
Following Lord Kinnock’s intervention, a Government spokesman added: “We will not be rejoining the European Union.”
The Government is also keen to distance itself from Lord Kinnock’s suggestion of rejoining the Dublin Convention.
“Thanks to the new UK-France Treaty, people arriving in small boats can now be detained and sent back to France, with the first returns having taken place this week,” the spokesman added.
However, Lord Kinnock believes that the Dublin Convention could serve as a silver bullet to Labour’s border woes.
“It would help the small boats crisis, too, as we will be part of the Dublin Protocol again,” the ex-Labour leader said.
“Under that protocol, which we participated in until 2021 when we fully left the EU, anyone who arrived by irregular means could be returned to the last EU country through which they came from [France].
“At the time, we didn’t have to do it much as there were very, very, very few people arriving by irregular means.
“Why? Because they knew that when apprehended, they would be sent back. We had to get out of the Dublin Protocol when we left the EU, something believers of Farage and the rest of them never acknowledged but it was always the truth.
“When we left the EU, we left the Dublin Protocol, which is the main deterrent to irregular migration. That is what has happened.”
However, Brexiteers claim that the Dublin Convention was far from effective when it came to transferring illegal migrants to other EU member states.
Former Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock speaks during a rally to support the ‘Stronger In’ campaign’s voter registration drive across the country
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The UK made 5,510 outgoing transfer requests in 2018, with only 209 being granted.
Britain also became a net recipient of illegal migrants as 1,215 asylum seekers were transferred into the UK.
Brexiteers have also been putting pressure on Sir Keir to reform or withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights.
Labour MP Graham Stringer argued the UK should leave the ECHR and the Refugee Convention.
Meanwhile, ex-Home Secretaries Jack Straw and Lord Blunkett called on Sir Keir to “decouple” or suspend the Strasbourg court’s rulings.