Leading figures who helped secure Britain’s exit from the European Union will assemble in London next month in a new “Brexit fightback”. Veteran Brexiteers are appalled by Sir Keir Starmer’s plans for a “reset” of relations with the European Union and fear the Labour leader is intent on putting the UK back in Brussels’s orbit.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves last month used a landmark lecture to set out plans for greater “alignment” with EU regulations, stating that while there are areas where “regulatory autonomy may be necessary” that be “the exception, not the norm”.

YouGov polling shows just over half the population (53%) would support rejoining the EU. This is true for 83% of Labour supporters, 82% of Greens and 84% of Liberal Democrats, but just 39% of Conservatives and 18% of Reform UK backers.

Figures include former Chief Brexit Negotiator Lord Frost, arch-eurosceptic Sir Bill Cash, former Labour minister Baroness Hoey and leading Thatcherite Lord Redwood will come together for the Freedom Association’s “Brexit Unleashed” conference.

Lord Frost said: “This conference is the start of the Brexit fightback. The Remain campaign never gave up and now wants to rejoin. Keir Starmer’s ‘reset’ is an attempt to begin this process to smuggle Britain back into the EU orbit without proper democratic scrutiny. He has forgotten that over 17 million people voted for Brexit nearly 10 years ago and they want their vote to be respected. “Britain needs a leader now who believes in national independence and wants to get the benefits, not someone who is constantly genuflecting to Brussels and blaming Brexit for his own incompetence.”

David Campbell Bannerman, chairman of the Freedom Association, said: “We have never had true believers in charge or a true Brexiteer Government, no official policy promoting the genuine benefits of Brexit or even really pursuing them with vigour. This has allowed false narratives and dodgy claims about so-called Brexit shocks to take hold as accepted facts.

“In the referendum, Project Fear failed; now we have Project Mislead from Rejoiners. We’re fighting back and holding the first Brexit Unleashed conference to demand that the many positives of Brexit are finally honestly acknowledged and that Brexit opportunities are fully taken advantage of to ensure the independence of our nation and the prosperity of free Britons.

“There is no need for any EU reset – just a need to truly embrace Brexit opportunities at last.”