The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Boris ‘making a fool’ of the UK in the EU
Boris Johnson’s gaffes are “making a fool of this country” and hardening antiBritish attitudes in the EU, according to the shadow Brexit secretary.
Keir Starmer said the foreign secretary is a “prime example” of the Conservatives’ botched diplomacy that has soured relations with the continent before formal Brexit negotiations have started.
The Labour MP was speaking at an event in Dunfermline at which former Prime Minister Gordon Brown also condemned the SNP’s failure to use new income tax powers to make society more equal.
Speaking at a Brexit discussion hosted by Scottish Labour’s deputy leader Alex Rowley, Sir Keir said: “I don’t mind if Boris Johnson wants to make a fool of himself all his life, but now he is making a fool of our country at a time when it really matters.
“He may think it’s really funny to talk about prosecco to the Italian government, to belittle why they might think the single market or the EU is important, but they are not in the mood for that.
“I’ve been in Brussels a lot since I’ve had this role. They think we are arrogant,”
Sir Keir, who was the director of public prosecutions in England and Wales before he entered Westminster last year, said Labour must “flush out” the “more and more entrenched positions” of those on both the Leave and Remain sides.
The pro-EU MP said: “Just as we challenge hard Brexit we have to challenge people who won’t accept and respect what those who voted to Leave were voting for.”
Mr Brown said the Tories have “lost control of the argument” and have got “mad and extreme” members pushing for the “hardest of all Brexits”.
Ahead of next week’s Scottish budget, the former Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath MP criticised the SNP for doing “absolutely nothing” with the new income tax powers.
“Inequality would last until doomsday if the SNP is all that confronts it,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ruth Davidson used a speech in London to call for an “unnecessarily divisive Brexit” to be avoided.
Speaking to the Institute of Directors on Monday night, the Scottish Conservatives leader added: “That starts with coming back together and healing the divisions here at home that the referendum campaign has caused.”
A spokesman for the SNP’s Brexit secretary, Michael Russell, said the call is “highly hypocritical” after the Tories failed to assure EU citizens in the UK of their future and have disrespected the Remain vote of Scots.