Brexiteers will be sending up the bat signal as fresh reports from Bloomberg reveal the UK is on track to secure a major ‘reset’ deal with the EU by May. Starmer’s major shift back to the bloc has been the cornerstone of his foreign policy since he became PM…
President Trump’s tariff announcement has been seized upon as an excuse for deepening UK-EU cooperation. Government officials from both sides now indicate that a defence and security pact is likely to be finalised at the EU-UK summit in London on May 19th. Meanwhile, talks over fishing rights – which the EU has long been pushing for a hard cave-in – are ramping up, with a deal either signed or committed to at the summit. Those 92 EU surrender staff have been busy…
Labour is also pressing ahead with efforts to secure an EU Youth Mobility Scheme, effectively reopening the door to free movement, despite the government’s repeated assurances that Britain would not rejoin the programme. A UK government spokesman said “we will not be providing a running commentary on talks when it comes to our dialogue with the EU.” Translation: Starmer’s road to rejoin is the bloc well underway…
Keir Starmer’s major reset and pivot back to Europe has been the cornerstone of his foreign policy since he became PM. Multiple trips to Brussels, cosying up to EU leaders and generally getting back on the EU circuit was pitched to business leaders as Labour’s big plan…
But it’s all come to nothing as the EU has decided to exclude British defence companies from its new €150 billion defence fund. The new Security Action for Europe (SAFE) mechanism has published its terms and includes a ‘buy European’ clause banning arms purchases from the UK, US and other non-EU countries. The French are suspected of having secured the exclusion of the UK as a shot in an ongoing separate row over fishing rights (part of Starmer’s re-opened EU settlement). Despite Starmer’s Ukraine diplomacy, standing shoulder to shoulder with Macron, the French have totally shafted him…
A distraught Labour source told the newspapers: “Europe needs Britain’s defence industry a bit more than the French need a few extra fish. It is astonishing how puerile the French are behaving. They have not grasped the enormity of the moment.” Welcome to the real world…
The EU’s foreign affairs chief, Kaja Kallas, is in town today for a lunch meeting with David Lammy to discuss defence and Starmer’s so-called ‘coalition of the willing’. Ahead of their sit-down, the pair wrote a joint op-ed in Politico, titled “This moment of crisis demands closer UK-EU cooperation.” Citing the Ukraine conflict, they argue for an ‘upgrade’ in the EU-UK foreign policy and security relationship, insisting that “our shared values and interests make us natural strategic partners.” Though their piece goes beyond just security cooperation in response to Ukraine…
Lammy and Kallas also call for stronger UK-EU collaboration on human rights, climate change, and broader ‘global goals’:
“More broadly, stronger U.K.-EU cooperation must continue to support multilateralism and the rules-based international order enshrined in the United Nations Charter. We must join efforts with other international partners in the pursuit of global goals, including addressing the challenges of climate change, fostering international development and protecting human rights…The EU and the U.K. are also engaged in bringing stability and prosperity to other parts of the world.”
Labour’s push for deeper ties with Brussels isn’t just about defence – it’s expanding on all fronts…
The EU has proposed buying weapons collectively on behalf of nation states in the face of fast-moving developments in Ukraine. Will probably work as well as it did with the vaccine…
A draft European Commission policy paper says it could “act as a central purchasing body” and that “demand aggregation through collaborative procurement is the most cost-effective route to rebuild European defence.” Things will come to a formal head on 20 March at the EU summit. Another step on the path to an actual EU army…
Ursula von der Leyen has already prepared loosened deficit rules for member state defence spending. Other proposals mooted in private by some European officials to get the UK more involved was for a more comprehensive defence agreement completely outside the auspices of the EU to be agreed with London for faster results. Such lean dealmaking methods are commonplace when you’re not interacting with a struggling superbloc…
European Commission president von der Leyen has just announced the EU will loosen enforcement of new climate regulations on carmakers. Strict plans in the bloc’s European Climate Deal set out numerous policies to achieve a 90% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, which includes gradually dropping targets for CO2 emissions in new European cars. From this year onwards the EU mandates new cars can’t produce more than an average of 93.6g of CO2 per kilometre – the average was 108.1g in 2022. And in 2030 the target plummets to 49.5g/km…
Von der Leyen says today the EU will consider changing compliance timeframes from one year to three in order to give struggling carmakers more “breathing space in the industry” while maintaining the strict targets themselves. Won’t be enough…
This comes as last year carmaker Stellantis (Jeep, Fiat, Peugeot) reported a 30% drop in new vehicle registrations, accompanied by Volkswagen dropping 15% and Renault 14%. De-industrialisation…
Labour is quietly pushing through the surreptitiously-named ‘Product Regulation and Metrology Bill’ – a framework bill light on detail but heavy on sweeping ministerial powers – that’s now at its report stage in the Lords. And opens the door for the UK to be swept back into EU standards and regulations…
The bill would allow the UK to align unilaterally with EU rules on product safety and environmental standards, bypassing Parliament through statutory instruments rather than primary legislation, meaning MPs won’t get a proper say, and won’t be able to amend or scrutinise any product regulations adopted. The bill is just 12 pages long, compared to the 191-page Employment Rights Bill…
Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith told Guido:
“This is a Trojan Horse EU Surrender Bill, giving Ministers unchecked power to drag us back into the European Union. This Government seems to be determined to give away our sovereignty in what is turning into an unashamedly anti-British tirade.”
The bill even includes a clause that could scrap the pint in favour of smaller glasses to align with EU-style metric measures. Starmer continues on his path to bring the UK back to Brussels…
Former leader of the SNP in Westminster Ian Blackford told Times Radio why he believes Nicola Sturgeon’s claim that she spent no time in the kitchen and therefore didn’t see any of her husband’s purchases:
“She doesn’t have a passion for cooking.”