The Erasmus student scheme – often billed as enabling British students to spend a placement year in an EU country – is being brought back by Starmer. It was junked in the Brexit deal for very good reason…
Erasmus was always hugely expensive to British taxpayers. Prior to the UK leaving, it saw twice the number of EU students come to the UK than Brits to the EU – an imbalance underwritten by British taxpayers to the tune of at least £200 million a year. A British state-funded free year for the European middle class…
Now Starmer’s ‘EU Relations Minister’ Nick Thomas-Symonds has announced the return of Erasmus just as Westminster winds down for the Christmas recess. The government says it will cost £570m in the 2027/28 academic year – a payment directly to the EU. What happened to ‘taking back control of our money’?
The bill reveals the true direction of the revenue raised by Reeves’ hated measures such as the family farm tax (it will pay for less than one fifth of this scheme) and the plethora of other tax rises. Are British taxpayers going to be happy when they work out these tax hikes are just going straight into EU coffers?
Starmer loyalist and Housing Secretary Steve Reed told Sky News that Starmer should not be replaced:
“We saw what the Tories did. They were in power for 14 years, and after 2016, I think we had nine education secretaries, seven chancellors, and five Prime Ministers. Doomscrolling through Prime Ministers doesn’t resolve the problem.”