KEIR Starmer’s Brexit chief will pledge to lock Britain into closer ties with the EU, despite warnings the plan amounts to a ‘betrayal’.
In a significant address regarding future relations with Brussels, Nick Thomas-Symonds will argue on Wednesday that aligning more closely with EU regulations is essential for stimulating economic growth.
The Cabinet Office minister, a close ally of Sir Keir, was appointed last year to oversee Labour’s ‘reset’ of relations with the EU.
He will promise to advance further on this path, including a vow to establish a new ‘food and drink deal’ with Brussels by 2027, which will solidify the adherence of British producers to EU standards permanently.
Nigel Farage has committed to overturning Labour’s reset accord with Brussels, claiming it undermines Britain’s chances of securing extensive trade agreements globally.
The Reform UK leader said the ‘abject surrender’ by Sir Keir had put Britain on a ‘slippery slope’ to rejoining the EU.
Mr Thomas-Symonds will today warn that scrapping the deal would damage businesses hit by post-Brexit red tape.
He will criticize Mr. Farage for ‘advocating for increased bureaucracy, excessive paperwork, and a regulatory burden’, stating: ‘Nigel Farage’s future election manifesto will explicitly indicate his intention to regress Britain, potentially depleting the economy by at least £9 billion, endangering jobs, and risking a rise in food prices.’
Keir Starmer’s Brexit chief Nick Thomas-Symonds will deliver his speech on Wednesday
Prime Minister Keir Starmer is facing claims of a Brexit ‘betrayal’
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen
The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is set to release a new evaluation today, indicating that the reset agreement will assist some food enterprises wanting to trade with Europe.
Whitehall sources said the value of Sir Keir’s reset deal could eventually reach £9 billion.
However, it also includes a commitment to the contentious ‘dynamic alignment’ with EU regulations, implying that British producers must not only comply with current EU rules but also adopt any new regulations from Brussels in their domain, despite having no influence over their creation.
Critics, including Boris Johnson, have warned the ‘sell out’ deal will make the UK a ‘rule taker’ with no choice but to accept a tide of new regulations from Brussels.
Shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel last night said Labour was ‘dragging us back into Brussels’ arms’.
‘Once again Labour are trying to justify their EU surrender – but the British public simply won’t buy this betrayal,’ she said.
‘Keir Starmer is dragging us back into Brussels’ arms, and looking to once again make this country a rule taker rather than a rule maker, having sold off our fishing communities in the process.
‘The Conservatives will never stand by and let Labour undo the democratic will of this country. We will fight them at every step.’
Mr Thomas-Symonds will today claim that the government’s decision to align with EU rules is an example of ‘sovereignty, exercised in the national interest’.
A Whitehall source said that dynamic alignment as a ‘a necessary step to boost growth, protect business, secure jobs and bring down food prices’.
This year’s reset deal included an agreement in principle to cut red tape on food and farming trade imposed by Brussels following Brexit in return for the UK agreeing to follow EU rules and allow continued access to British fishing waters.
Today’s report by Defra will warn that small food exporters face a ‘competitive disadvantage’ because they have struggled to cope with the new red tape.
Mr Thomas-Symonds will pledge to finalise the new food and drink rules by 2027. But this could involve further concessions on the EU’s demands for a new youth mobility scheme, which critics have branded a return to free movement by the back door.
