Pro-EU fanatic Keir Starmer doesn’t want Britain to be Great, says Leo McKinstry

Starmer makes new plan for a migration deal (Image: Getty) Contempt for British freedom and nationhood is a hallmark of the pro-EU fanatics. Consumed by their worship of the Brussels empire, they believe Britain is incapable of self-governance, as they demonstrate in their relentless, doom-laden propaganda about the supposedly calamitous impact of Brexit . So deep is their hostility to British democracy that, since the 2016 referendum, they have been willing to go to extraordinary lengths to overturn the result. That is what makes Labour’s plan for a migration deal with Brussels so chilling. During his much-hyped visit to The Hague yesterday, Sir Keir Starmer presented his scheme as a means of smashing the criminal traffickers through deeper international cooperation. That is just deceitful spin. His approach would lead to a surge in migration numbers, since Britain would agree to accept a quota of the vast influx of asylum seekers who enter Europe every year. The Labour plot to drag Britain back into the suffocating, bureaucratic embrace of the European Union has never been abandoned. In the aftermath of the referendum, Sir Keir was one of the prime advocates of the campaign to thwart the will of the people through tactics such as obstruction in Parliament, demands for a second vote and manoeuvres in court. Due in part to Boris Johnson’s resolve, backed up by the huge Tory victory in the 2019 General Election, he failed in that undemocratic mission. Yet now, as he stands on the threshold of power, his intention to revive Britain’s submissive relationship with Brussels is all too clear. As well as the border climbdown, he has already stated that a Labour Government will negotiate an agricultural deal which could open the way to the return of farming regulations. Even more ominously, he has spoken of a wider renegotiation ‘to fix Brexit ‘, which is bound to involve further loss of sovereignty. Inch by inch, concession by concession, Brexit will be destroyed if Labour reaches office, for the top ranks of his party have never truly accepted the 2016 result. At heart, they remain true believers in the federalist dogma. Baroness Helena Kennedy (Image: Getty) That shines through the words of Starmer’s fellow Labour lawyer Baroness Helena Kennedy, the grand dame of the judicial metropolitan elite. In one interview, she said that Britain’s withdrawal from the EU was ‘a disaster’ that ‘is going to take us into a really terrible place’. Lady Kennedy then resorted to the worst kind of demonisation: ‘Mad Brexiteers have common things about them, almost invariably; they don’t like homosexuals, they don’t like foreigners and they hate human rights. Such fantastical imaginings said more about the Baroness than her opponents. What Brexiteers wanted was the most basic democratic right of all: the right to self-determination. She has bleated about attacks on the legal profession over Brexit by the Tory Government, which she said had ‘undermined’ respect for the law. The real damage to the integrity of the law has come from Remoaners’ belief that democracy can be ignored. The pro-EU stance is not just dangerously undemocratic, it is hopelessly wrong. The Baroness also sneered ‘a tiny wee country like the UK isn’t going to figure very well’ outside the EU. Her disparagement of Britain’s capacity for self-reliance could not be more mistaken. Our economy has remained strong. Unemployment is low and wage growth is above inflation. Reality contradicts Remoaner gloom. The EU Commission has said ‘activity in the UK has held up better than expected’, reinforced by news that the £218billion value of British manufacturing has overtaken France’s £210billion sector. Big companies announced major investments such as BMW’s £600million at its Oxford plant and France’s Banque National de Paris urged clients to move money out of the Eurozone and into Britain. The idea that Britain is isolated is equally false. As well as signing the Windsor free trade deal with the EU, Britain joined the potentially lucrative Trans-Pacific Partnership. Only among deluded Remoaner propagandists does Britain’s future look bleak. Liz Truss’s premiership was the shortest (Image: Getty) Liz Truss was unkindly known among City traders as ‘Daggers’ – short for Dagenham, which on the London Underground District Line is three stops past Barking. Her premiership was the shortest and one of the most catastrophic, for which the public is still paying in higher mortgage rates. Yet without any sense of shame, she and her tiny band of supporters have the nerve to claim she was ousted by a Left-wing establishment because she tried to implement true Conservative policies. I yield to no one in my dislike of the Blob – the progressive confederacy that has had such a malign influence on public life. But Truss was entirely the author of her own downfall, due to her reckless plans for state expansion, vast subsidies, unfunded tax cuts and massive borrowing. The political term for that is not Toryism. It’s socialism. Kate Garraway is taking care of her husband (Image: Getty) Kate Garraway is a true heroine. Her care for her Covid-stricken husband Derek Draper is an awe-inspiring example of human compassion. Her exhausting devotion is matched by raw honesty. She says that three years of looking after Derek have left her ‘a shell of a person’, though she adds that caring ‘for someone you love is a privilege’. For me, the saga is especially poignant for I knew Derek well when we worked together for the Labour Party at Westminster. He was always funny and thought-provoking, a restless maverick who liked to challenge convention – he even kept a poster of Roy Hattersley in his digs when he was a student. I can only hope he makes a recovery from his tragic illness. The Inheritance has all the right ingredients Channel 5’s new thriller The Inheritance has all the right ingredients for a gripping programme: greed, betrayal, lust, intrigue and feuds. There are also plenty of fine actors including Pauline McLynn (Father Ted), Robert James-Collier (Downton) and Kevin Whately (Morse). But the undoubted star of the show is Samantha Bond, right, who superbly plays the secret wife of the deceased. I don’t know if her character will get to keep her inheritance in this compelling story, but Bond certainly deserves a cabinet-full of awards for her performance. A well-informed, politically aware neighbour here in Kent complained the small boats crisis has been blown out of proportion by the Conservative Government since the total of 45,000 people who made the crossing of the Channel last year is dwarfed by the 1.2 million migrants who were allowed to settle legally. But such an argument is dangerously complacent. The Government cannot accept a parallel, illicit system run by criminal gangs. Such a step would shatter remaining credibility in border controls, promote a mood of anarchy on the coast, encourage a vast increase in risky crossings, heighten the burden on the taxpayer and worsen the injustice for migrants who try to play by the rules. A tougher approach is needed. The brilliant Express investigation into the lethargic antics of the French police at Calais – to whom Britain has pledged £500million in support – shows the fallacy of relying on our Continental neighbours who have no interest in stopping the trade. That also explains why Labour’s proposal for a new migration deal with Brussels is so absurd. It is delusional to think the EU wants to help strengthen our borders. European institutions, wedded to free movement, are part of the problem. The Government must come up with answers which involve processing claims outside Britain and far more deportations of illegals. The ‘Car Park of England’ Kent has long been known as the ‘Garden of England’ but sometimes I feel parts should be renamed the ‘Car Park of England’ so ferocious is the congestion. Three times in the last fortnight I have been caught in stupendous jams around the county, once even on a Sunday. And there are people who still deny that southern England is overcrowded.