Brexit storm as Brussels set to offer Keir a ‘re-set’
Keir Starmer has been accused of plotting to drag the UK closer to the european Union after it emerged Brussels is poised to offer a Labour government a ‘relations re-set’.
european leaders are believed to be targeting a scheduled 2026 review of the UK-eU trade deal to agree a closer commercial relationship – especially if Sir Keir is prime minister.
The deal would not involve rejoining the single market or customs union, the i newspaper said, instead it aims to increase movement of food and cars.
Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch said: ‘Parliament spent three years deciding the right Brexit
strategy. There have been challenges, but the strategy is delivering dividends.’
She added: ‘ A vote for Labour takes us back to square one.’
Trade minister Greg Hands said: ‘i have long predicted that Labour will seek to enter into a customs union (or similar arrangement) with the eU if they ever come into
power. After all, this was Sir Keir Starmer’s own policy before the 2019 election.’
Tory MP Lee Anderson added: ‘Brits aren’t daft, we know Starmer doesn’t just want a closer relationship with the eU, he wants to drag us back in kicking and screaming.
‘Sir Keir spent years trying to block and overturn Brexit.’
Both individual member states and the eU’s wider institutions are thought to be keen to strike closer ties with the UK under a Labour government.
‘The 2026 review of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement is a big opportunity for Starmer, potentially,’ one diplomat said.
Last night, Labour sources said any claims that the leadership was looking to take the country back into the eU when in government were ‘nonsense’.
Shadow Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas- Symonds said Labour wanted ‘ to make Brexit work’ but also to ‘re-set relations with key european allies’. He added: ‘We would aim to improve the UK’s trade and investment relationship with europe.’
Mr Thomas-Symonds also said ‘Labour would seek to strike a UK-eU defence and security pact to complement Nato’.