The Prime Minister hopes to reveal his new Brexit deal on Monday
OPINION
Sir Keir Starmer hopes to ‘reset’ EU relations (Image: Getty)
Keir Starmer’s plan for a great “reset” of relations with the EU are floundering after his European friends stabbed him in the back.The Prime Minister is to welcome EU leaders to London for a major summit on Monday where he hoped to confirm a new agreement. However it’s now possible the meeting will be a flop – with no new deal possible, or at least a deal which has much less in it that Sir Keir was hoping for.
Sir Keir’s aim is to show that the UK, under his leadership, can actually make Brexit work by cutting trade barriers with the EU at the same time as retaining our freedoms to control our borders and sign trade deals with other countries across the world. He used to be a Remainer but the Prime Minister now wants to prove he can do a better job of Brexit than Brexiteers such as Boris Johnson ever managed.
DON’T MISS
Powered by
Keir Starmer tipped to announce massive US trade deal within days
And there’s a second reason he wants the “reset”, prompted by the war in Ukraine and made even more urgent by US President Donald Trump’s lack of interest in Europe. The President wants European nations (which includes the UK) to take care of our own defence while the US focuses on the Pacific and what it regards as a threat from China.
So Sir Keir hopes for a new defence pact, with European nations working closely together to plan our defences if we need to protect ourselves from Russia. This would probably mean the UK and France, Europe’s biggest military powers, taking the lead.
In many ways, his thinking is perfectly sensible. Yes, there are some who will accuse him of “betraying Brexit”. But free trade with the EU is good for us, just like free trade with India and the USA. And we should have realised long ago that we have to defend ourselves, rather than assuming America will do it for us.
But it seems EU leaders have decided to make impossible demands.
Most Popular Comments
18 hours ago15
“The EU is a political projekt. Members when they jon start to transfer their independence and sovereignty. Run by suprnational org like the …”
Read • Reply
18 hours ago13
“We have no friends in the EU!”
Read • Reply
17 hours ago11
“Dear Mrs Philips. I’m letting you know that this has gone out on all national media …”
Read • Reply
They want more access to UK fishing waters. They want a full-blown “youth mobility scheme” allowing young people from across Europe to work in the UK, and not the more limited scheme with strict controls which Sir Keir is apparently willing to accept. And they want the UK to sign up to EU food standards, with a European court enforcing them.
If they had any sense they would know that Keir Starmer can’t agree to all this. For example, he’s just announced plans to cut immigration. He can’t introduce a youth mobility scheme that will increase migrant numbers (the Home Office is understood to support a modified scheme with strict controls on numbers instead).
The attitude of the EU appears to be that if Britain wants something, it should be prepared to give something in return. It sounds fair but in the present situation it’s nonsense, because free trade and strong defence benefits everybody, not just the UK. Measures to deter Russia from invading Eastern Europe aren’t some sort of special favour for Sir Keir.
It’s this sort of pig-headedness that helped prompt Brexit in the first place. Brussels is determined to push its obsession with centralisation and bureaucracy even though voters hate it – not just in the UK – and it actually damages support for the EU.
As a result, the Prime Minister’s big meeting on Monday may not be the triumph he expected. That’s bad for him, and it’s also bad for the EU.
Most Popular Comments
18 hours ago15
“The EU is a political projekt. Members when they jon start to transfer their independence and sovereignty. Run by suprnational org like the …”
18 hours ago13
“We have no friends in the EU!”
17 hours ago11
“Dear Mrs Philips. I’m letting you know that this has gone out on all national media …”