Stanley Johnson suggests he may vote for Labour over EU

STANLEY JOHNSON has suggested he would consider voting Labour as a result of their stance on the UK relationship with the European Union.

Mr Johnson, father of former prime minister Boris Johnson, said that he could support Sir Keir Starmer’s party if it pledged to bring Britain back into the European Environment Agency (EEA) – one of the organisations the UK left when it quit the bloc in 2020.

He also warned that the Tory party would not be “saved by a move to the Right” and his vote would be decided by stances on the environment and EU.

Mr Johnson, a staunch Remainer who became a French national to keep a “link” with Europe post-brexit, was asked whether Labour’s position on the EU could tempt him to vote for them. He told GB News: “Nothing would tempt me to vote Labour.”

But pushed further, he added: “What would tempt me is a coherent policy now to rebuild bridges with Europe. It seems to me absolutely absurd that we are setting ourselves up having come out to say, ‘Oh, well, now we must more and more separate ourselves out.’

“I would vote for any political party, which at this point said ‘I want to bring the UK back into the European Environment Agency’. We were always there.”

When pressed on whether that meant he would vote Labour if they put forward such an offer, he said: “I might well. I tell you something I might.”

He added: “What is more important in the end, a political party or some absolutely massively important topic, which is the environment, which pins down what you can do for generations to come? I’d say that’s more important.”

Labour has said that it would seek a closer relationship with the EU, which would include a veterinary agreement as well as a security and defence deal.

The party has said that it would seek to rewrite the existing Brexit deal when it comes up for review in 2025, with Sir Keir saying last year that the date provided an opportunity to “get a much better deal for the UK”.

At a summit in Canada in September, he said: “We don’t want to diverge, we don’t want to lower standards, we don’t want to rip up environmental standards, working standards for people at work, food standards and all the rest of it.” The Labour leader, however, has insisted that the party would not seek to take the UK back into the EU.