Back to Brussels? Ed Miliband says Britain’s future ‘lies in a stronger, deeper partnership’ with the EU
The Foreign Secretary spoke about the EU and Gaza sanctions in his conference speech
Ed Miliband said the UK’s future on economics, defence and security “lies in a stronger, deeper partnership with the European Union”.
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Europe is “not just our geography, but so much more”, the Foreign Secretary told the Labour Party conference.
Speaking in Liverpool on Monday, Mr Miliband said: “We will never, never give in to Russia’s threats that we must stand aside and abandon the people of Ukraine.
“And we will always, always stand up to Russia’s threats wherever they are.”
Read More: Andy Burnham says he will not try to undo Brexit
Mr Miliband added: “We are part of this fight as humanitarians, but also as proud Europeans.
“This is our continent, and if there is one lesson that I have seen demonstrated to me again and again in this job, it is this: Europe is not just our geography, but so much more.
“It is how we pursue our values from climate to the Middle East.
“It’s how we pursue our interests from trade to defence.
“It’s where we build and protect our alliances, so it is not simply Britain acting alone, but Britain with others.
“And on economics, on defence, on security, I say to this conference, our future lies in a stronger, deeper partnership with the European Union.”
Elsewhere at the conference, EU relations minister Hamish Falconer said he hoped a “reasonable arrangement” could be found to stop the UK being cut out of the proposed Made In Europe scheme.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has urged the EU to avoid causing “collateral damage” to British industry with the scheme, which intends to focus public contracts and subsidies on manufacturers based within the bloc.
Mr Falconer told a fringe event: “It’s in proposal stage now it’s nothing yet to worry too much about til we get a little further down the line.”
He also brushed off a question of whether Sir Keir Starmer’s strategy on the EU had not gone far enough.
“I stand as ever on the shoulders of my predecessors, and they have taken us to a really important point,” he said.
But of Mr Burnham’s hopes for growth from new agreements with the EU as the UK seeks to secure a summit with the bloc that was delayed when Sir Keir stood down, he said:
“The prime minister is obviously ambitious. We are focused on the summit now.
“We are keen to go further and faster on our relationship with Europe, and I think we are clearly talking about pretty big numbers in terms of the overall addition to GDP.
“But we’ll have to get into the rather precise details of what we think a package can deliver once we’ve concluded negotiations on the summit.”
Mr Miliband also used his speech to speak directly to those “moved and outraged by the plight of the Palestinian people”, saying: “We hear you, you were right.”
He added: “The only route to peace is two states. A secure Israel and a secure Palestine, with freedom, dignity, and self-determination for both peoples.
“We all know how far away we are from that.”
“Under Andy’s leadership, we have reset our approach. We call out ethnic cleansing by the settler terrorists in the West Bank, we call out the evidence of war crimes in Gaza, we call out Israel’s illegal occupation of Gaza.”