Brexiteer – Keir Starmer’s cosying up to EU ‘act of despair’ | Politics | News

John Longworth had the chance to make a comfortable life in the British establishment but blew it to help Britain escape the European Union. For years he was at the heart of Britain’s supermarket revolution with Tesco and Asda, and as an entrepreneur he took the reins of the British Chambers of Commerce. However, as the 2016 Brexit referendum approached, he could not remain silent; He declared that the EU was “incapable of meaningful reform”.

His heartfelt speech resulted in his dismissal as chief executive of the powerful business group. This gave him the freedom to campaign full-force for Brexit and then stand and win a seat in the European Parliament as a member of Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party. Almost a decade after voting to leave the EU, he once again fears for Britain’s future. He is appalled by Sir Keir Starmer’s quest for a closer relationship with Brussels and Chancellor Rachel Reeve’s economic decisions.

“The idea that we are a rich country is complete nonsense,” he warns. “We are in a difficult situation in terms of people’s welfare.”

He has a simple diagnosis for why Brexit has yet to deliver the expected growth: “It’s unusual to win a revolution and cede control to the establishment, which is exactly what we did with Brexit. We won a revolution but blamed the establishment for doing everything possible to prevent it.”

He traveled the world in his supermarket days, even traveling to the Amazon region in search of soybeans, and witnessed the soaring growth of emerging economies, becoming convinced that Britain was missing out on true prosperity.

He remembers saying in the 1990s: “We need to start loading planes to take people to Asia and see what real growth looks like. Because they have no idea.”

He decided that Britain’s “relative decline” was a “serious problem”. To sustain the NHS, the country needed a different growth pattern. Years of visiting businesses across the country have convinced him that British businesses can meet the challenges of life outside the EU.

“They were capable of doing anything if they were released,” he says. “What I did know was that the legislative burden on the European Union was going to get bigger and bigger.”

He visited embassies before the referendum. He recalls being “hurled insults” at him in France and at a dinner at the German Embassy where a group of establishment figures “very clearly conspired” to undermine Brexit. He recalls a senior BBC player being “extremely biased towards Brexit”.

“I was just horrified,” he says. “I finally made a speech and walked out.”

When he decided to share his belief that Britain could have a brighter future outside the EU in terms of personal career, he had a “deep suspicion that this would not end well”.

He says his stance has attracted the ire of Downing Street, with Boris Johnson describing his treatment as “scandalous”. After the resignation, he took part in the Vote Leave campaign but ignored it. Mission: Successful when the country supported Brexit.

Mr Longworth and Richard Tice, now deputy chairman of Reform UK, have set up a new pressure group, called Leave Means Leave, to ensure Brexit becomes a reality.

Years of gridlock ensued as Theresa May, a “terrible prime minister”, tried to negotiate a deal with Brussels that would have the support of Parliament; Meanwhile, a second referendum campaign to reverse Brexit has gained support.

Mr. Tice and Mr. Longworth had more in common than a desire to cut ties with Brussels. They both studied at Salford University.

Mr Longworth recalls: “I came back to Salford to give a speech to the graduates and remarked that Brexit might never have happened if Salford had not given us such a bright start in life.”

The UK still had not left the EU at the time of the 2019 European Parliament elections. Mr Longworth accepted Mr Farage’s invitation to stand in the election and his newly formed Brexit Party came first in the poll.

When he arrived in Brussels he never doubted that Britain was better off outside the EU project. He argues that the country only became a member “in an act of desperation”.

“The whole aim was to create a federal state, and Britain got that wrong time and time again. We either had to get in there from the beginning and shape it to our liking… Or we should have stayed out of it and not joined at all.”

His relationship with Mr Farage broke down and he lost his whip for “repeatedly undermining” the Brexit Party’s general election strategy. Mr Longworth argued the party should focus on winning 20-30 seats.

“My number one priority was to get Brexit done,” he says.

The Conservative Party leader feared Mr Johnson’s chances of winning a strong majority in the 2019 Westminster election were under threat and that Brexit itself could be at risk. Mr Longworth joined the Conservatives and they won by a landslide – but he was dismayed by Johnson’s premiership.

“It got Brexit done, but in other respects it was a disaster for both the country and the Conservatives,” he says. “Boris caused a wave of immigration – an absolute disaster. He brought forward the net zero craze – an absolute disaster.”

Mr Longworth has not yet decided which party he will support at the next election, but he still fears the centre-right vote will be split and Labor could potentially win power once again with the help of the Liberal Democrats.

“It is absolutely essential that all parties on the right put the national interest first because Britain will be ruined,” he warns. “And if they don’t, it shows what they’re really made of, which is personal ambition and the pursuit of power.”

Sir Keir sees in his “utterly pathetic” efforts to “reset” relations with the EU an echo of Edward Heath’s original push for membership.

“Getting closer to the EU, giving something and getting nothing in return is an example of despair,” he says.

One of his biggest concerns is that Britain is run by people with minimal business experience. He argues that politicians can learn a lot from supermarkets.

While supermarkets face intense competition and survive by extreme efficiency and defending the customer’s interests, there is no “internal competition” in Whitehall.

Supermarkets are a force for good, Adamant says: “Before supermarkets became what they are now, manufacturers were dictating to consumers what they should have; now supermarkets act as consumers’ advocates, effectively telling the producer what to do. This has changed the whole dynamic of the market.”

He grew up in Bolton “in a terraced house just next to the mill”. His father served in the RAF and managed a dairy farm, and Mr Longworth was the first in his family to go to university, studying environmental sciences and then atmospheric physics.

The future Brexiteer was politically agitated when Keith Joseph, widely seen as Margaret Thatcher’s intellectual guru, spoke before a “very loud” audience at his university.

“He was a genius,” he recalls. “It was absolutely amazingly inspiring.”

His biggest fear today is that the UK will be trapped in an economic “doom loop”; but the experience of seeing Britain emerge from the quagmire of the 1970s gives him hope that better days are ahead.

He argues that “only one thing” can transform the economy and “that will eliminate the net zero madness.” He wants a new era of drilling for North Sea oil and gas, exploiting Britain’s underground energy reserves through fracking.

If the Government goes down this path by reducing the size of government and cutting taxes, “people will be surprised at how quickly things are changing”, he claims.

He currently chairs the Independent Business Network, which supports family businesses and has a mission to seize the “opportunities provided by Brexit”. This entrepreneur and campaigner knows that speaking your mind can come at a significant cost, but he enjoys his freedom and has big ambitions for this country.

Does he want to run for election again? No, but he admits: “If you want to put me in the House of Lords as business spokesman, I’d reluctantly agree to that, but I don’t think it’s likely to happen.”