Public becoming ‘almost numb’ from ‘tiresome’ Brexit debates, says Keir Starmer

The Labour leader said Johnson needed to ‘get on with’ getting a deal with the EU rather than re-treading old ground.

Appearing on LBC, he said: ‘Boris Johnson is all over the place.

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‘Here he is, he’s signed a deal – he either knew what he was signing, in which case how has he got himself in this position? Or else he didn’t know, which I think is probably worse.

‘I don’t think the outstanding issues can’t be resolved so my message to Boris Johnson is: get on with it and actually focus on what most people are speaking about this morning which is how on Earth do we defeat and deal with this pandemic?

‘That’s what’s on people’s minds – they thought this was over, he’s reopening it, I think the nation would say to Boris Johnson, ‘Get on with it, you’re wrong’.’

Starmer said he suspected the argument was an eleventh-hour attempt to secure ‘leverage’ in the negotiations with the EU.

‘There is a bit of me that suspects he is trying to do this for leverage in talks. Just as we saw last year, at the eleventh-hour there will be some concessions and movement, and we get a deal. And in a sense, I do very much hope we get a deal, because do we need a deal for our country’.

Starmer added that Labour would not back a plan that breaks international law, and pointed to opposition from both his party and those in Johnson’s own party.