Starmer’s Brexit reset marks a welcome return to political honesty
Slowly, quietly, reluctantly, this Labour government is ready to confront the reality staring us in the face
Let’s be clear: Monday’s deal between the UK and the EU is no revolution.
It doesn’t end border friction, return us to the single market, nor undo the decade of political, economic, and diplomatic damage caused to this country by Brexit.
While the deal will deliver some tangible wins for British students through a return to the Erasmus scheme, cheesemakers who will again be able to sell back into the EU, and crime-fighting, returning access to Europol databases to our police, of course, there’s far more that could be done. Most of the changes, from youth mobility schemes to lighter border checks, are still promises waiting to be fleshed out.
But taken together, these changes mark a vital shift in tone. Starmer’s government isn’t ready to say Brexit was a mistake, but it is showing signs of treating it as a problem to be managed, not a national triumph to be celebrated.
But the deal is still highly significant not because of what it achieves but because of what it signals: a long-overdue Brexit reset, and the first flickers of a government willing to admit that the current arrangement had failed us. It has taken almost a year to hammer out the agreement, and many more to reach the political maturity to pursue it.
Take food and drink exports. For years, small British businesses have been cut off from EU markets because of cumbersome health requirements. Under the new deal, those checks are going. No more veterinary sign-off for every slab of cheese or joint of beef. And while it won’t return us to the single market, it’s a tacit acknowledgment that erecting trade barriers with our biggest partner was economically ruinous.
Or look at the Erasmus programme. Once dismissed by Conservatives as nothing more than a perk for privileged kids, it offered generations of young Britons life-changing study and work opportunities in Europe. Rejoining it now, despite its cost and the asymmetry of student flows, is more than just a symbolic move. It’s a recognition that isolating ourselves from European networks doesn’t make us more sovereign, just more limited.
The same pattern applies to fisheries, security, migration, and policing. The UK is re-integrating, piece by piece, not because we’re re-joining the EU, but because reality demands it. Fish can now be processed and sold into the EU without laborious veterinary checks. British police will regain access to vital criminal records and fingerprint data. Our border force will finally get the information it needs to cooperate with European partners on irregular migration. These aren’t ideological shifts, but pragmatic fixes for the chaos Brexit unleashed.
Of course, there are limits. There’s no movement yet on medicines regulation, an area where divergence has cost lives and money. Musicians and performers are still locked out of touring the EU with ease, despite years of protest and the huge industry they command compared to fisheries, for example. And the UK will remain outside the customs union, meaning friction at the border remains a joyful feature of post-Brexit Britain.
But taken together, these changes mark a vital shift in tone. Starmer’s government isn’t ready to say Brexit was a mistake, but it is showing signs of treating it as a problem to be managed, not a national triumph to be celebrated.
For too long, British politics has been paralysed by a refusal to acknowledge the costs of Brexit. Politicians, blinded by their ideology and ambition, contorted themselves to claim that border queues were teething problems, collapsing exports were a Covid blip, and declining foreign investment had nothing to do with our exit from the world’s largest trading bloc. Even Nigel Farage now admits Brexit hasn’t worked—though, true to form, he insists the problem is that it wasn’t hard enough, not that the promise was flawed from the start.
This deal doesn’t shatter the silence, but it does create cracks. In the deal’s quiet, technical language a different story is being told, one where regaining control means regaining cooperation, and restoring some of what we’ve lost requires humility and honesty about how we lost it.
Starmer’s cautious approach to government has often felt frustrating, devoid of grand vision or ideological zeal. But when it comes to undoing the damage of Brexit, that lack of ideology might be his greatest asset. At a time when others remain blindly loyal to blatant mistakes, a managerial mindset is what’s needed: someone willing to confront reality, not pander to fantasy. If he stays this course — rebuilding trust, repairing relationships, and treating the public like adults — we may finally begin to move past the delusion of Brexit exceptionalism.
Monday’s Brexit reset was not yet a full reckoning. But it is a start. ■
About the author: Zoë Grünewald is Westminster Editor at The Lead and a freelance political journalist and broadcaster. She has worked in and around Westminster for five years, starting her career as a parliamentary clerk before throwing away the wig and entering journalism. Zoë then worked as a policy and politics reporter at the New Statesman, before joining the Independent as a political correspondent. When not writing about politics and policy, she is a regular commentator on TV and radio and a panellist on the Oh God What Now podcast.
This piece is part of The Lead Says, bringing you insightful writing on people, place and policy. In the last week we’ve untangled what the Brexit reset summit may mean (as part of our The Lead Untangles series) and also heard from Best For Britain’s Niall McGourty about some of the background about how we’ve reached this point. And the shifting political feeling on Brexit is nothing new to readers of The Lead, Zoë Grünewald has written on how the political tide might be turning. There is much gnashing of teeth when it comes to Brexit, and plenty of noise, for a considered and thoughtful view on Brexit as an issue and ensuring there’s a strong relationship between the UK and Europe then support our insightful writing at The Lead with a paid subscription and ensure alternative voices are being heard.
