Before Brexit there was no small boats crisis: more proof that leaving the EU made everything worse | Jonathan Freedland

Keir Starmer insists there's no case for rejoining. But his migration plan and other desperate Tory fixes merely seek to repair the damage

It was only an aside. Keir Starmer wasn't planning to talk about Brexit, but a subject almost as perilous for his party: migration. Still, Good Morning Britain wanted to know if his plan to strike a deal with the European Union in order to stop the small boats crossing the Channel meant he was weakening his stance on EU withdrawal. There's no case for going back to the EU," he said, no case for going into the single market or customs union, and no freedom of movement."

Those words were hardly a shock. Starmer has said similar things before, though sometimes adding the gentle qualification that he could see no political case" for rejoining the EU, a formulation that hints that while restored membership might be desirable, it's not feasible. The balder declaration he deployed on Thursday insists that there's not even an argument to be made in principle for British re-entry.

Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist. He will host a Guardian Live event with Gordon Brown on Tuesday 26 September at 7pm BST. The event will be live in London and livestreamed - book tickets here