Starmer accused of attempting to take Britain back into EU

Tory Chairman Greg Hands yesterday, May 14, accused the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer of attempting to rig voting with the aim to guide the UK back to EU membership. 

Starmer, who has previously said that he would allow EU nationals with settled status in the UK to vote in UK elections, has now said that he would look to give 16 and 17-year-olds the right to vote in the UK.

With both these proposed policies and the knowledge that younger voters overwhelmingly voted to remain in the EU in the 2016 Brexit referendum, Starmer’s announcements have sparked allegations of an unspoken ambition to rejoin the EU.

Lee Anderson, the Conservative vice-chairman was reported in the Sun as calling the Labour leader’s plans “shameless manipulation of our voting system”, and “desperate stuff from Starmer”. Yet manipulations of voting demographic are not solely the pursuit of the Labour Party.

The Conservative Party previously manipulated voting region boundaries back in 2018, and although saying that this was to make voting fairer, it was calculated that it doubled the Tory advantage over Labour.

Although not the final plans for the Labour Manifesto, these proposed policies are ruffling a lot of Brexiteer feathers, as well as those of people who maintain that the issue of EU membership is already settled.

Kerry (backing Nurses) posted a Sky News video on Twitter of Grant Shapps, Conservative Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, reacting to Labour’s proposed policies:

“Grant Shapps says Keir Starmer has radical left wing policies, & he can’t name one single one. Sophy asks 4 times in 1 minute for him to name 1 & shapps says ‘but corbyn’. Turns out he’s upset because Labour will let 16 year olds & settled eu migrants vote”.

Grant Shapps says Keir Starmer has radical left wing policies, & he can’t name one single one

Sophy asks 4 times in 1 minute for him to name 1 & shapps says

‘but corbyn’

Turns out he’s upset because Labour will let 16 year olds & settled eu migrants vote#Ridge #BBCLauraK pic.twitter.com/o0n2h0kXZo

— kerry ✊💙Save Our NHS (@hewitson10) May 14, 2023

Shapps has also been quoted as asking of Sir Kier’s alleged desire to re-open a route back to EU membership: “What else will we reopen?”

Aside from the fact that these are only proposed policies, some would ask if, in politics and legislation, a vote is ever the final chapter of a story or whether that book always remains open.