Labour's Brexit red lines should be retired, says co-author Chris Ward, citing US security doubts

Chris Ward, the Labour MP for Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven, has called for the party's Brexit red lines to be given what he calls a "dignified retirement" before the next general election. He is well placed to say so. Ward was Keir Starmer's chief adviser when Starmer was shadow Brexit secretary, he co-authored the red lines that appeared in Labour's 2024 manifesto, and he later worked as a minister on the EU reset. He made the case in an article for the Guardian, addressed to Andy Burnham, who is now the one deciding what Labour will promise.

The red lines rule out rejoining the EU, the single market and the customs union, and they rule out restoring freedom of movement. Ward says they did their job. They were agreed, he wrote, to close down the debate and narrow the target that Brexit had become for Labour. He still thinks that was the right strategy. But by the next election, he argues, they will have served their purpose and no longer speak to the world as it is in 2026.

The reason he gives is security rather than economics. Ward says the UK "could no longer rely on the Americans", and he points to two episodes in which Starmer had to scramble alliances together: one over Ukraine and one over the strait of Hormuz. In his words, it would now be "brave in the extreme" to rest the security of Britain and Europe on the outcome of US elections, or to assume that Washington can be banked on as it was in 2016, let alone 1945. He called that question unthinkable in 2016 and unavoidable in 2026. He also pointed to the new security and cyber threats that the UK and Europe face daily.

He is notably cool on the economic case. Ward accepts that rejoining the EU or the single market would bring economic benefits, but says campaigners who lean on that argument risk repeating the old result and missing what has really changed. He also said he had never understood the case for rejoining the single market without full EU membership.

On what should replace the red lines, Ward is open. He says there should be a public debate on whether Britain formally rejoins or seeks a form of associate membership, as Canada has. He adds that the prime minister will need to explain why now is the right moment to reopen the Brexit debate, what the government is seeking and why it matters to the national interest. Rerunning the arguments of 2016, or defending red lines designed for 2020, will not do that, he says.

His intervention follows another from within Starmer's circle. The former chancellor Rachel Reeves has said it was right for Burnham to consider rejoining. Burnham has announced that he intends to seek a closer and more permanent relationship with the EU, potentially including membership. He has said previously that a Labour manifesto could offer an option to rejoin the single market, but that fully rejoining the bloc would require a referendum.

Ward also defended the current reset. He expects it to show that real benefits can be delivered inside the red lines, citing cheaper prices for businesses, a youth mobility scheme and the return of Erasmus+. He hopes, "touch wood", that the deal gets over the line at next month's UK-EU summit, and he suggests that renewing the relationship may be the defining political moment of this autumn.

The calendar is crowded. Burnham attends the European Political Community summit in Dublin on Thursday, where the reset deal is expected to be completed and where he will meet many European leaders for the first time, setting out his ambitions for deeper integration on the sidelines. On 20 November, at a Brexit reset meeting in Brussels, the UK is due to sign new agreements on agriculture and food, emissions trading and a youth mobility scheme. The prime minister is then expected to give a speech on options for the future relationship.