(Bloomberg) – Business secretary Kemi Badenoch and her future Labor successor Jonathan Reynolds Bloomberg’s election debate on Monday saw clashes over how Britain can ease trade friction with the European Union after Brexit.
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Reynolds left open the question of whether Labor would accept a role at the European Court of Justice as part of a veterinary deal it plans to negotiate with the bloc to reduce friction in the fresh food trade. Senior EU diplomats have told Bloomberg that such an agreement is negotiable as long as it is supervised by the Court of Justice.
“I’m not going to give away our negotiating hand completely,” Reynolds said in the debate at Bloomberg’s European headquarters in London on Monday. “In any trading relationship, we should always strive to make it as smooth and easy as possible.”
Badenoch said Labor is not being honest about what it has to give up to achieve a closer trading relationship with the EU. Bloomberg reported earlier Monday that British officials, EU diplomats and even senior Labor figures believe in a leader Keir Starmer will struggle to forge a significantly different trading relationship unless he relaxes his pledge to keep Britain out of the EU’s customs union and single market.
Starmer’s silence on Brexit threatens to backfire if he comes to power
According to national opinion polls, Labor is on course to easily win the British general election on July 4, ending the Conservatives’ 14-year reign. Badenoch tried to convince the audience of business people that they should fear the prospect of a Labor government. “You should be terrified if you were to hand over your business, the economy and taxes to Labour,” she said.
Badenoch has not yet said whether she will stand as leader of the Tory party if Prime Minister Rishi Sunak steps down after an electoral defeat. She dodged the question again when she and Reynolds were asked if they would ever lead their party.
“I think it’s clear that this question was intended for me,” Badenoch said. She said her current position was the “job of a lifetime” which was “a lot easier” than being prime minister. She said questions over the Tory leadership would be resolved after the vote, and refused to rule out a run.
The two politicians also clashed over their approach to reducing the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions to “net zero” by 2050. While Sunak has backtracked on the country’s green targets, insisting that net zero should not burden ordinary Britons with what the Tories describe as unnecessary measures. costs, Labor plans to establish a state-owned energy generation company to rapidly invest in green infrastructure.
The global shift to renewable energy is “one of the greatest opportunities that has ever existed,” said Reynolds, who disagreed with Badenoch, who said Britain’s legally binding net zero target is both an opportunity that must be used as a cost item that must be limited.
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“We must be able to adapt as circumstances change,” she said, pointing to the Covid-19 pandemic and the energy crisis caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
–With help from Alex Wickham.
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