All bun and no beef: Why can’t Starmer be bolder on Brexit?

“Where’s the beef?” That was one of America’s best-known advertising slogans dating back about 40 years. Three elderly women look at an enormous hamburger bun. They think it is impressive, until they open it and inside the hamburger is tiny. “Where’s the beef?” they declaim. The joke is that something looks impressive but once you inspect it, the result is hugely disappointing. The ad was so successful that the hamburger chain Wendy’s reported sales of their burgers went up 31 per cent in the following year. That famous catchline has always been in my head when listening to political leaders. With US President Donald Trump these days, there is plenty of bun on the outside. There is probably a lot of beef in his new policies although the “beef” may prove difficult to swallow. We shall find out before long. But what should we make of six months or so of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer ’s government? Last year, the UK – as the US – was desperate for change. The economic inheritance that Mr Starmer received was bleak. And the world of 2025, from Gaza to Ukraine to the prospect of trade wars, also looks grim. There is no way to minimise his difficulties, but British voters are increasingly asking: “Where’s the beef?” Mr Starmer’s colleagues respond that they are working hard on everything from better health care to stimulating economic growth and defence. These things take time. Yes, agreed. But we have reached the five-year anniversary of Brexit , and we have opinion poll after opinion poll telling us that the vast majority of British people think it is a dismal failure. For months, it has been obvious that many of those who voted for it see Brexit as a mistake. So why is the Starmer government dithering like a terrible football team failing to score at an open goal? Mr Starmer talks of a “reset” with Europe. That can mean anything or nothing. For now, it seems to mean a few words suggesting that some kind of change may be made sometime in the future. The puzzle is why Mr Starmer cannot be bolder. He could stand before the British people and say that the country was unaware of the precise consequences of Brexit and so it needs to change direction, especially since Mr Trump’s presidency makes the UK’s relationship with the US very unpredictable. It appears that Mr Starmer does not want to be bold on Brexit because he does not want to appear to overturn a democratic vote of the British people in a referendum, however flawed that process has been. But most of all, Mr Starmer knows that fully re-engaging with the EU will be tortuous, exhausting and perhaps even a distraction from many of his other policies. Besides, European politics right now are a mess. Governments in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Spain and elsewhere have significant domestic problems. The prospect of a coherent EU negotiating a new deal with “those weird Brits” is not high on anyone’s agenda in Berlin, Paris or Brussels. And although UK government ministers don’t say this bluntly, this Westminster government has so many problems to face that there is little brain space left for complex negotiations taking years with the EU. Perhaps the most difficult bit is that any new deal between the UK and the EU will be worse than the one former UK prime minister Boris Johnson torpedoed five years ago. Even if rejoining the EU is predicted to fire ahead growth in the UK economy, all those crafty deals negotiated by former prime minister Margaret Thatcher will not return. So, what will happen now? The war in Ukraine and the unknown direction of Mr Trump’s America are very likely to eventually propel the UK to a closer relationship with the EU, but the formalities are difficult. Second, at some point Mr Starmer’s government will recognise that it is not leading the British people on Europe. It is following them. British public opinion recognises Brexit is about as useful as a chocolate teapot. Even the least brave politicians recognise that the significant shift is towards a better relationship with Europe, although what that might look like is hard to fathom. But voters are impatient. The upstart Reform UK party is doing well in opinion polls. Mr Starmer’s government is not popular, and he has to move beyond the idea that he can simply manage government better than his predecessors. That means he needs a coherent, imaginative and optimistic vision of Britain’s future in the second quarter of the 21st century, beginning with recognition of some basic geographical and political facts. The UK is within 50 kilometres of mainland Europe. The American President is unpredictable and has an isolationist streak. The “special relationship” between the US and UK is not so special. And in 2025, many of those British voters who took a chance on voting Labour are already asking themselves if their lives are improving. The answer so far is a resounding “no”. The people are looking at the Starmer government, lifting the bun and asking: “Where’s the beef?” They need a better answer.