Boris Johnson’s ex-wife has urged Sir Keir Starmer to take a “more radical” approach to Brexit in order to correct the errors made in the EU deal struck by her former husband.
Marina Wheeler, a human rights lawyer, has announced she is writing a new book urging the prime minister to go much further in his Brexit reset mission and build closer relations with Brussels.
The new book, titled A More Perfect Union, will call on political leaders to admit that “Europe is once again central to Britain’s future” and argue that Britain should “build a union” with the bloc again.
It comes just days after Mr Johnson launched a scathing attack on the prime minister’s Brexit deal, which he claimed was “hopelessly one-sided”.
“Starmer promised at the election that he would not go back on Brexit. He has broken that promise as he broke his promise on tax”, the former prime minister posted on X.
Sir Keir – who has made a Brexit reset a centrepiece of his administration – said last week’s UK-EU summit marks a “new era” of relations with the bloc, adding that it is about “moving on from stale old debates” and “looking forward, not backwards”.
The deal - which was the first serious attempt to fix the harms caused by Brexit after Boris Johnson’s flawed deal in late 2019 - was seen as a major coup for the prime minister, despite his failure to get concrete details agreed on defence and youth mobility.
Ms Wheeler’s publisher, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, said her book would compare her ex-husband’s Brexit deal to a divorce settlement.
“Like a court order in a divorce, the Brexit deal contains our bare legal obligations”, they said.
“Yet as dangerous forces gather and global technologies stoke animosity, we have a wider duty. If Britain and Europe can’t work together, what chance do democracy and the rule of law have?”, the publisher said.
Ms Wheeler added: “Nearly 10 years after Britain voted to leave the EU, the unstable state of the world is clear to us all. Less obvious is the extraordinary opportunity this presents to put right what went wrong before and build a Europe we can together defend."
The human rights barrister was married to Mr Johnson for 25 years, separating in 2018 after having four children.
The book’s synopsis reads: “Labour aims for a ‘reset’. Barrister and mediator Marina Wheeler proposes something more radical: a roadmap towards a meaningful rapprochement.
“In A More Perfect Union, she tackles the political anxieties and identity crises on both sides of the Channel, and makes the case that transforming this relationship is now critical if our fundamental political liberties are to survive another generation.
“Concise, forensic, devastating, it is essential reading no matter which side you were on.”
The government has been contacted for comment.
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