Starmer makes ‘take back control’ pledge to voters

Posted at 10:5910:59

Starmer quizzed on his Brexit views

Next, Starmer is asked by a journalist from the Sun whether – given he appears to be using his New Year message to champion Brexit voters – he regrets in the past having advocated for a second Brexit referendum.

“Should vote leave voters now believe you?”, he is asked.

Starmer says that even in the turbulent years from 2016 to 2019 he was “making the argument that there was always something very important sitting behind the Leave vote”.

He says the Leave campaign’s slogan – take back control – was “really powerful”, it “got into people”.

“The more they asked themselves ‘do I have enough control?’ the more they answered themselves ‘no’,” he says.

“If you can’t make ends meet in your family, you don’t have control, if you don’t have a secure job, you don’t have control, if you feel you can’t go out after dark because of anti-social behaviour, you don’t have control – I’ve always accepted that argument,” he says.

“We intend to turn that slogan into a solution,” he says, and again mentions Labour’s proposed Take Back Control bill to spread power out of Westminster, which he says will “deliver it in action”.

He adds people need to “embrace” the referendum result now it is “many years” since the UK voted to leave the EU.