Has Keir Starmer Reached Breaking Point?

Scott Hunter

15 January 2021

Last week Kier Starmer announced that he was abandoning his commitment to restoring free movement of workers. In doing so, he surprised many.



As, for a Labour Leader, this is tantamount to inviting Roy Chubby Brown to perform at the party conference, TVM investigates what may have motivated this U-turn, and shows how the Tees Valley provides a unique perspective on the issue.

Sometimes you have to question politicians’ sense of timing, like when Farage started yelling ‘Brexit Betrayal’ before the 2016 referendum had taken place, or when Kier Starmer announced last week that he was abandoning his commitment to free movement. 

In Farage’s case it was clearly a matter of ‘get your excuses in early’, but Starmer’s appears entirely gratuitous, as if he were just trying to fill a lull in the conversation. 

So, two questions present themselves – why now? And what impact would it have on the Tees Valley? 

In preparation for the second question, we approached the region’s Labour MPs.

Of the issues raised by the Brexit referendum, that of free movement was perhaps the most fraught, as the Faragistes succeeded in unleashing a frenzy of race hate across England so vehement that the pro-Europeans maintained support for it only very, very quietly. 

It became, not a campaign platform, but a red line. 

And, in the end, one that Starmer seems to have skipped over very casually.

Presumably, he is trying to distance himself at the earliest opportunity from an issue on which he realises he can’t deliver, the Brexit deal being so wafer-thin that there is a mountain to climb before any properly workable relationship with Europe can resume. 

This, essentially, the view expressed by Andy McDonald MP,

“However, we accepted it in order to be able to move forward and make the best of what will undoubtedly be a difficult road ahead. Keir Starmer laid out the reality of what we will face in 2024 and the parameters in which we will have to work. That is being straight with the public.”

But in doing so, Starmer is sailing close to the wind.

To many, Starmer’s rejection of free movement may appear as an outburst of pragmatism over principle and sets a dangerous precedent. 

People could be forgiven for interpreting this as a case of, “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em”, of a nod to racist elements in an attempt to unscrupulously shore up Labour’s vote. 

At TVM, we do not believe that this is what he intends, but there is always room for his intention to be misconstrued, especially in an environment where there has been a dramatic shift in the political consensus.

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The anti-immigrant rhetoric that accompanied the 2016 referendum gained a lot of traction and was ugly everywhere. 

Nowhere was this more ludicrous, however, than in the Tees Valley. 

As Alex Cunningham MP put it, “Migration has shaped our area and many people can trace their families back to those migrants who came to the Tees Valley to find their fortune, or just make a better life …”.

But he’s missed a bit, because he goes on to comment only on inward migration. 

In fact, the successive waves of immigration into this region were followed by the ‘Auf Wiedersehen, Pet’ generation, where, as Thatcher’s industrial policy rapidly accelerated economic decline here, this became a region that people left in order to find work, either temporarily or permanently.   

Immigration dwindled, and, by 2016, had reached negligible levels. 

The failure to attract immigrant populations, despite the benefit of free movement and the accession to the EU of the countries of Eastern Europe, is the mark of this region’s economic stagnation.

In a nutshell, the Tees Valley has too few immigrants.

The rejection of free movement will help to ensure that it stays that way, and will stifle regeneration. 

This government has said a great deal about ‘levelling up’  but has never explained how this can be achieved at the same time as it strangles the movement of labour. 

Keir Starmer now appears to have joined them.

And the people of this region who support the end of free movement need to appreciate the negative impact this will have on their lifestyle. 

Teesside Airport being brought back into public ownership with a ten-year plan to bring it to financial viability, has become the symbol of economic regeneration here. 

But in reality that financial viability is unlikely, and Tees Valley mayor, Ben Houchen,  knows it. 

Regional airports do not survive on back of the summer holiday market, they need to be able to offer scheduled services all year round. 

The people who fill those planes are what is known as the ‘visiting friends and relatives’ (VFR) sector, that is to say, immigrants. 

Sheffield Doncaster airport, for example, is almost entirely dependent on them. 

When profitability fails to materialise, people  need to realise that it is not because they and their neighbours have been taking too few foreign holidays, it’s because they put their trust in people who put a stop to free movement, and who therefore can’t deliver the economic regeneration they have promised.

Both Andy Mcdonald and Alex Cunningham, in their statements to us, talk about ‘being straight with the public’, and we have no reason to doubt their sincerity. 

But if they are serious about seeing it through, they need to alert Keir Starmer to the Teesside Airport trap.