Labour’s path on the EU is going as expected. The FT reports this morning that the EU Relations Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds’ meetings with bloc officials have so far managed to produce a list of “tough” demands for the UK to follow. Crawling back to the EU comes with a price tag…
The commission accuses the UK of failing to implement the Windsor Framework properly and demands a huge increase in checks and stoppages for veterinary items and flora crossing the Irish Sea. The UK is also commanded to prevent EU citizens’ being forced to make a separate settled status application after living in the UK for five years. Meanwhile the bloc is continuing with its 4-year-old legal case against the UK for the way it carried out the transition period. So much for that Starmer good will…
Labour is making obsequious noises on their EU ‘reset’, like claiming that it is open to sending the Elgin Marbles to Athens, but the bloc obviously wants more. A free movement deal for young people, access to territorial fishing waters, and rejoining the Erasmus scheme are on the top of the list. Summits and nice statements were never going to cut the mustard…
European politicians are already pouncing on Starmer’s obvious bid to tighten the UK’s ties with the EU. Germany’s ambassador to the UK, Miguel Berger, has come out saying that London and Brussels should ink a massive security pact, encompassing everything from farming regulations to the Erasmus student exchange programme. Starmer’s pursuit of an EU-UK defence pact is clearly about more than just ‘defence’…
Berger’s call for cooperation on “areas which are in the common interest” signals that closer ties are imminent. This isn’t just idle chat. Foreign Secretary David Lammy has already said that Starmer’s proposed UK-EU defence pact should cover pandemics, migration, critical minerals, and decarbonisation. Starmer can expect that brokering a student-exchange deal while migration numbers soar will ruffle plenty of feathers among MPs. Ever on the path to re-join…
Friday saw the biggest IT meltdown in history: flights grounded, news channels off air, and people unable to make payments. Now it turns out the global economy took a nosedive because of… the EU…
The tech giant blamed a 2009 agreement with the European Commission which bullied Microsoft into allowing multiple security providers to install software. This prevented security changes that would have blocked the CrowdStrike update that led to the ‘digital pandemic’. Meanwhile, Apple kept the gates locked from other providers since 2020 – a move they managed by not bowing to EU demands. Union-wide disruption…
Starmer is this morning kicking off the fourth European Political Community (EPC) summit at Blenheim Palace. He has billed it as a friendly “reset” of UK/EU relations combined with talks to co-operate on migration. Like having migrants sent over from EU countries…
Labour is now briefing hard that it is “nowhere near” a re-negotiation. David Lammy said that it would be silly to argue Labour was heading down the rejoin path because they were only two weeks into government. No attempt to say he’s not trying to reverse Brexit…
Minister for the Constitution and European Union Relations Nick Thomas-Symonds has been busy this week going for meeting with EU officials to push forward that very same “re-negotiation“. The government has strong commitments to “dynamic alignment” (rule-taking) with the EU on regulatory grounds while pushing for a defence pact that would destroy the current flexible ad hoc arrangement the UK currently enjoys. Cosying up is all well and good, soon enough the EU is going to start talking concessions…
Starmer and his Cabinet made their intentions to create closer ties with the EU clear during the election campaign, and it looks like (for once) Labour is already starting to deliver on their grim promise. Starmer is already boasting of strengthening the UK’s relationship with the bloc…
Speaking to hacks on his way to Washington DC, Starmer said he will “take full advantage of this opportunity” of the NATO 75th anniversary and European Political Community due to be held in the UK to “strengthen” ties with Brussels. He spoke of how bringing Lammy, Healey and Thomas-Symonds across the pond with him will help “double down” on “strengthen[ing] our relations with various of the Nato leaders and others obviously that are there, including EU leaders.” Hitting the path to rejoin the EU running…
Starmer said he wants a better deal with the EU, saying he’ll reopen the Brexit deal. He detailed that he’d like “a trading deal…a deal on research and development…and a deal on security and defence” with the bloc. Sounds like much closer ties to the EU…
Sunak hit back: “All the things he’s talking about involve accepting more migrants, free movement by the back door.” Give and take means give and take…
Speaking at his speech on how to achieve “progressive capitalism” Wes Streeting fired a dig and Andy Burnham:
“Bond markets are not bond villains and fiscal rules matter.”