Labour’s EU “reset” is charging ahead, with the party tasking a fleet of civil servants to deepen ties with Brussels. As Guido first revealed, a new EU surrender unit has been quietly established within the powerful Cabinet Office. Insiders say it’s already a 100-strong operation, though Labour has been keeping tight-lipped about the scale of this relentless push to reverse Brexit…
Tory MP Richard Holden asked a written question to Paymaster General Nick Thomas-Symonds, asking how many staff were in the unit and what the target headcount is for the ‘EU Relations Secretariat.’ Naturally, the Labour minister responded with the usual platitudes about the need “to reset the relationship with the EU”. When it came to answering the question he refused, instead offering the line that headcount details will be “published in the usual way.” No word on what that actually means. Holden tells Guido:
“Despite the waffly response, one thing is clear and transparent from Sir Keir Starmer’s Government: Labour have redeployed an army of civil servants to the Cabinet Office to reverse Brexit. They won’t tell us how many but it’s clear that while Sir Keir may have abandoned his plans for a second referendum, he’s determined enough to sneak us in via the back door.”
Lord Kempsell also tabled a question asking for the headcount and structure of organisational units in the Cabinet Office and No10. The Government claims it will publish those by the end of the month. All eyes on whether Labour will reveal the true extent of their push to rejoin the EU…
Lord Khan in the Telegraph: “I hope, and I say this in a non-pompous way, that the public service I do will bring rewards in this world and the hereafter,” he says. “I’m hoping the work I do is earning me Brownie points.”