Andy Burnham is expected to pledge this week that foreign criminals will not be returned to EU countries, according to a leaked draft agreement prepared ahead of a “surrender summit” with the bloc.
Kemi Badenoch condemned the proposed deal last night, saying it suggested the Prime Minister was prepared to accept “a laundry list of extra costs for struggling families” at Friday’s meeting in Brussels.
The claims emerged as pro-Brexit campaigners warned that the UK could be required to accept more than 4,400 additional asylum seekers each year—or pay Brussels an extra £76 million annually—if Mr Burnham’s Brexit “reset” ultimately results in Britain rejoining the EU.
The Prime Minister has said he intends to use the UK-EU summit to begin a “conversation” about future relations, although critics fear that process could eventually take Britain “all the way” back into the Brussels club.
In addition to the provisions on foreign prisoners, the leaked draft agreement:
- Commits the UK to contributing to regional development funds and the EU’s electricity market.
- Allows young people from all 27 EU nations to live in Britain for up to three years to work, study or travel, without a cap, age restriction, visa fee or NHS surcharge.
- Sets Britain on a path towards adopting Brussels’ tariffs on Chinese cars and steel.
The Prime Minister is expected to pledge that foreign criminals will not be returned to EU countries at this week’s “surrender summit”
The prison-related section states that “the UK recognises the concerns of the EU with the early removal and deportation of foreign national offenders from the UK to the EU Member States in particular under the Sentencing Act 2026” and says that “the UK commits not to proceed with such removals and deportations in the future”.
Officials have described the leaked document as an early draft of the agreement due to be signed by Mr Burnham and EU counterpart Ursula von der Leyen. They stressed that negotiations had continued intensively since the document was produced.
However, Tory leader Mrs Badenoch told The Mail on Sunday: “Andy Burnham’s EU reset is rapidly becoming a laundry list of extra costs for struggling families. Whether it’s being asked to pay into Europe’s electricity market, which is likely to push up energy bills, or paying into an EU asylum fund with no guarantee it stops a single small boat, it looks like Burnham is being taken for a ride.
“With stagnating economies and riots across the continent, Europe has plenty of its own problems right now.
“It doesn’t make any sense to be signing Britain up to rules and payments that will do nothing to fix the problems we have back home.”
Stay Out, a campaign founded by former Vote Leave supporters to oppose Mr Burnham’s Brexit “reset”, said that rejoining the EU would oblige Britain to participate in the bloc’s asylum solidarity scheme. Under the programme, member states face financial penalties if they refuse to accept asylum seekers relocated from other countries.
The campaign estimates that Britain’s annual allocation would be 4,444 people, on top of those already arriving illegally in small boats.
FIND OUT MORE: John Fetterman’s Wife Opens Up About ‘Divorce’ Rumors in Revealing New Book
The alternative would be a payment of €20,000 (£17,000) for every person the UK declined to accept—equivalent to £75.6 million a year. That sum would come on top of the predicted £750 million-a-week cost of EU membership.
Stay Out has attracted support from prominent figures across the Brexiteer movement, including former Vote Leave chief Michael Gove and Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice.
Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice has backed Stay Out, the campaign formed by former Vote Leave supporters to oppose Mr Burnham’s Brexit “reset”
Mr Tice said last night: “Rejoining the EU would mean sending hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ money to Brussels to get a load of asylum seekers in return. It would be madness.
“The last thing this country needs is more asylum hotels that cost the taxpayer billions and leave local communities petrified.”
Stay Out claims Britain’s annual payments to the EU could reach £39 billion after re-entry, or £756 million a week. That would exceed the £350 million-a-week figure controversially cited by Vote Leave during the 2016 referendum.
The EU’s annual budget has doubled since the UK voted to leave a decade ago, while the bloc has introduced several green levies that Britain would also be required to fund.
The payments would be made without the annual rebate negotiated by Margaret Thatcher.
Oliver Lewis, chairman of Stay Out and a former deputy chief negotiator for the UK during Brexit, said: “Andy Burnham wants to rejoin the EU without telling the public it would mean thousands more asylum seekers sent here from southern Europe every year, enough to fill dozens more hotels, on top of a £750 million-a-week membership fee.
“If we refuse to accept whatever number Brussels decides, Britain would face a bill of almost £1.5 million a week. There would be no veto, no opt-out and no end date, and the bill would rise whenever other European countries voted to raise it.”
The proposals also prompted warnings that any attempt to overturn the result of the 2016 referendum could put Labour’s hold on power at risk.
Labour MP Graham Stringer said voters had not changed their minds about leaving the EU, despite what he described as the assumptions of “many people in the Westminster bubble”.
He added: “Such a betrayal could cost Labour the next election.”
