SOUTH Cumbria’s MPs have responded to whether the country should rejoin the European Union as the Brexit debate is reopened after recent comments from the former Health Secretary Wes Streeting.
Tim Farron, MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale, Lizzie Collinge, MP for Morecambe and Lunesdale, and Michelle Scrogham, MP for Barrow and Furness, have all had their say on whether they would back the United Kingdom rejoining the EU.
Nearly 10 years on from the historic referendum which took the UK out of the EU, the area’s parliamentarians were all reluctant to fully back immediately attempting to rejoin the 27-nation bloc.
It comes after Mr Streeting restarted the debate around EU membership last week with comments made to a think tank conference in London.
Mr Streeting, who also resigned from Sir Keir Starmer’s government last week, triggering a media frenzy around a potential leadership challenge to the prime minister, said Brexit was ‘a catastrophic mistake’.
He said: “The biggest economic opportunity we have is on our doorstep.
“We need a new special relationship with the EU, because Britain’s future lies with Europe – and one day back in the European Union.”
Mr Farron, who campaigned for the UK to remain in the EU in 2016, said he still believes the UK’s ‘long-term future lies in Europe’ and did echo similar sentiments to that of Mr Streeting last week.
This is because ‘the damage done by Brexit to our economy, to our farmers, and to Britain’s standing in the world has been significant’, he said.
However, Mr Farron added: “But right now, our focus has got to be on fighting for a better deal with our European neighbours so we can lower costs for Cumbrian businesses and help us tackle the cost-of-living crisis.”
Ms Collinge, who also campaigned to remain in the EU, said she was ‘really glad’ that the nation was moving ‘closer to Europe’ and stated that in her heart she ‘deeply misses being part of the EU’.
But Ms Collinge fell short of fully backing Mr Streeting’s comments.
She said: “I am not yet convinced that there is a consensus for rejoining [the EU] as a new member, with all the different conditions that imply, particularly joining the Euro.”
Ms Collinge also said she would be ‘concerned’ about whether reopening the Brexit ‘in/out national discussion’ would be a distraction from the work the Labour government needs to focus on.
Meanwhile, Barrow's MP Mrs Scrogham said: “What people expect from us, and what this government is rightly doing, is trying to repair in a pragmatic way the needless damage done by that poor Brexit deal without reopening the circular arguments that went round-and-round until we were all sick of them.
“Our economy has been severely damaged by Brexit, sold to the good people of this country by those who were set to really benefit, as with the £5 million donation to the leader of Reform who this week states it was a bonus for delivery.
“I voted remain and do think Brexit was a mistake but we will not be offered the same deal we had previously so we need to focus on what is the best solution for our country and our economy going forward, and work to deliver that.”
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