Case for rejoining the EU is only growing stronger: Yorkshire Post Letters

Time to tell Brextremists to drop the made-up ‘poisoned pill’ arguments they hope might discourage talk of us rejoining the European Union. Their claims of insurmountable barriers preventing re-entry are as fake as the snake oil ‘Brexit benefits’ they’ve been peddling since 2016.

‘The EU won’t have us back’, they cry. EU leaders say they will -when we’re ready. Hopefully soon, then; its 56 per cent Rejoin versus 44 per Stay Out on polls website What UK Thinks.

Another dummy ‘poison pill’ in the letters page of a national paper (Metro, May 27) was that “the far-right could soon hold a majority” in the EU. ‘Do we want to join that?’ A silly exaggeration. But also perhaps another damned good reason for them to welcome back a bit of British moderation, common sense and political stability at the heart of Europe.

A favourite Brextremist bogeyman is the euro. We might eventually settle for a non-member Norway-style deal: the single market and customs union, but keep our own currency.

But any agreement that does involve the euro might still take a while to implement. Sweden joined in 1995. Poland 2004. They’re both still outside the Eurozone.

The euro’s actually popular where in use, though; 71 per cent say it’s been good for their country (European Commission, October 2024).

Brextremists also point to a 2024 Labour manifesto saying ‘no’ to a customs union, the single market or rejoining. But no-one voted Labour because of its Brexit position. It was the “elephant in the room” - the topic that all the main English parties’ leaders avoided.

Sir Keir Starmer and his MPs should be grateful so many were willing to vote for them - despite a weak position on Europe. Seventy-eight per cent of 2024 Labour voters want to rejoin (YouGov, January 20-21).