Boris set Britain back 3yrs in just 3 short days
Shadow Foreign Secretary blasts illegal Brexit plan
It is hard to overstate just how much the actions have diminished us in the world
LISA NANDY ON TORIES’ MOVE TO BREAK INTERNATIONAL LAW
BRITS are “sick and tired” of divisions over Brexit after Boris Johnson’s attempts to reopen “old wounds”, according to the Shadow Foreign Secretary.
Lisa Nandy accused the Prime Minister of setting back the country’s global reputation with plans which would break international law.
She warned that the public was “very, very scared” about a second coronavirus wave and wants the Government to focus on controlling Covid.
And she claimed people do not trust some of what ministers are asking them to do regarding virus testing or lockdown measures.
Speaking before Labour’s virtual conference, Ms Nandy warned that the
Government had unfurled “shock and anxiety” among foreign allies which could take years to overcome.
She said: “It’s hard to overstate how much the actions of the past week have really diminished Britain’s moral authority in the eyes of the world. “There is a big job of work to be done to repair those relationships. “What the PM did this week was essentially to set us back three years in three short days and reopen not just old arguments, but old wounds.
“In the middle of a global pandemic, the country doesn’t want it.” Asked if the UK could ever rejoin the EU, she said: “It’s not even clear the option would be there. I’ve felt for a long time now the argument is over. We’ve got to find a way forward.” Ms Nandy said people lacked confidence in the Government’s coronavirus plans because it had shown such “chaos and incompetence”.
She said: “I think people are baffled about whether it has just given up altogether. People are just very, very scared.
“There has been a sense since the Dominic Cummings incident that people can’t really trust the Government and they don’t trust some of the things they’re being asked to do.”
Ms Nandy admitted Labour, which is behind the Tories in the polls, has a long way to go.
She said: “We have to recognise how much trust we lost but I think people have started to pay attention.”
The Wigan MP said the secret to winning back “Red Wall” seats Labour lost at the last election was to be more rooted in local communities.
She said: “Westminster is a bubble. You have to be interested in what people say and in the realities of their lives.”
She claimed the Tories do not “know or respect” voters in many of those seats.
She said: “You could see it from the day Johnson took office and tried to stoke division over child refugees, when they tried to ignite culture wars.
“People in towns like mine do not like nastiness. They want to see governments who behave with decency.”
She said leader Keir Starmer would take the party in a different direction and “move on” from Brexit.
“When Keir says we’ve got to move on, those divisions are over, it strikes a chord across the country,” she said.
She said it was “absolutely right” the UK had a relationship with whoever wins the upcoming US election, despite previously criticising Donald Trump. The UK is “squeezed” between the two global superpowers of China and the US and needs to take a “constructive” approach to both in future, she said.