It may not last but, Britain, dismissed only yesterday as an irrelevancy after its isolationist vote to break links with 27 European countries eight years ago, now seems an oasis of stability. Meanwhile, a perplexed, argumentative European Union is not quite sure what it should do or even what it should be.
Academics and commentators have been declaring for a decade that the left in Europe was being replaced by an unstoppable rising tide of rightist populists full of hate against immigrants and Muslims but full of praise for Vladimir Putin.
The democratic left in Europe has had a bad 21st century so far. Yes, there are examples of left governments – usually shaky coalitions as in Germany, or arrangements with secessionist regional politicians as in Spain – but the glory days of 25 years ago when the Left held power in 12 out of 15 EU member states are gone. The time when Bill Clinton joined Tony Blair, France’s Lionel Jospin, Germany’s Gerhard Schröder, Italy’s Massimo D’Alema to discuss “progressive governance” in a Florence palazzo seems from another era.
Yet a British politician – Sir Keir Starmer – who was unknown a decade ago, is now the star of the European left. Moreover, the United Kingdom, which became a global joke under its Brexit-era prime ministers, such as Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, now seems a haven of common-sense politics compared to the rest of Europe.
Starmer should thank Marine Le Pen and Truss for being able to begin his premiership as a major leader in Europe.
Le Pen came top in France’s European Parliament elections in July and proclaimed in consequence she was now the real leader of France. To call her bluff, President Emmanuel Macron decided to dissolve France’s parliament, the National Assembly, and ask voters to decide who should make the laws of France. Le Pen and her party were relegated to third place, but there is now no majority for any party in the National Assembly as the left refuses to work with Macron or the right and vice versa. The word “ungovernable” is on every TV and radio commentator’s lips.
So while Britain can look to five years of a solid Labour majority with even Scottish voters dialling down their flirtation with ultra-nationalist secessionists, the rest of Europe is coming to terms with shaky multi-party coalitions (with some based on far-right parties entering government, such as in Italy, the Netherlands, Slovakia and Sweden).
Starmer has already made a strong impression at last week’s Nato summit in Washington. He should also thank Truss who, somewhat surprisingly, given her pathology against European partnership, signed up for the European Political Community. This was Macron’s brainchild set up in 2022 to include 47 European nations, including Turkey, Armenia, Georgia and even Azerbaijan, as well as EU member states.
In her brief premiership, Truss not only agreed to join Macron’s European Political Community (EPC), but she also offered to host the 2024 event in England later this week, fondly assuming she would emerge as a world figure instead of another broken English nationalist now in the dustbin of history.
So it will be Starmer, his Foreign Secretary David Lammy, the new Defence Secretary John Healey and Nick Thomas-Symonds, minister for making friends again with Europe – not the Brexit-era Tory political leaders so decisively rejected by British voters – who take the stage at the EPC at Blenheim Palace.
Starring at Nato or EPC summits is not a magic solution to Britain’s economic ills, however. But foreign investors like the sound of Rachel Reeves’ growth-focused strategy and new ministers like Sir Patrick Vallance, who said Britain should again be open to European researchers and scientists without paying the very high visa costs imposed by the Conservatives.
Across Europe, Labour’s sister parties are coming to London to learn how Labour won such a clear victory. Of course, there are UK specific aspects, not least the damage Brexit has done to the economy, and the abolition of the sovereign rights UK citizens lost with Johnson’s hard Brexit Treaty in 2020.
Even long-time fanatical anti-Europeans, such as Le Pen, Geert Wilders and Giorgia Meloni, have dropped their demands to leave the single currency, let alone the EU, as they witness the damage Brexit has caused Britain.
Having initially adopted Theresa May’s slogan “Make Brexit Work” in 2022, Starmer now enthuses that Europe is “at the forefront of some of the greatest challenges of our time”. For now, the Labour government is content to be a supportive friendly player on the outside and is not looking to once again be a decision-maker or allow British firms and citizens to be in Europe as they did prior to 2020. But the ground is moving.
Denis MacShane is the UK’s former Minister of Europe. His latest book is Labour Takes Power. The Denis MacShane Diaries 1997-2001 (Biteback)