Labour’s General Election campaign was flooded with cash from die-hard remainers, raking in £3.95 million in donations from remoaners. Eyebrows will be raised as to what promises Rachel Reeves and her team made to attract these deep-pocketed backers. It’s no secret Starmer’s been cosying up to the EU since entering office…

Among the top donors is Remainer and funder of the ‘Britain Stronger in Europe’ campaign Lord David Sainsbury, who donated over £2.5 million to Starmer’s campaign. Gary Lubner, the former Autoglass boss, who declared Brexit a “disaster” dropped £900,000 during the summer. Lubner has also been dubbed the Party’s ‘biggest donor for decades’, having given £4.5 million to Labour just before the campaign…

Antony Gormley, who called Brexit “the biggest act of self-harm” gave half a million pounds. One new Labour donor, Gareth Quarry, even went as far as to admit he donated £50,000 to Labour as a “passionate remainer” in the hope of a new relationship with Europe. Money talks…

Questions about the motives of big Labour donor Lord Alli are swirling in SW1. The party’s line that he’s just a peer without any agenda, and that he doesn’t intervene politically apart from ‘being Labour’, took a hit when Guido exposed his arguments against the ousting of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. Coupled with the fact he was sent to Iraq by Number 10 to meddle in the January 2005 elections, Labour’s defence line is quickly wearing thin…

Guido has dug through the archives and found more evidence of Alli intervening politically. Back in May 2018, then Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn urged his MPs to resist calls for a Norway-style Brexit deal. Lord Alli was far from happy, denouncing the move as “cowardice.” He made his case in the Lords for why the UK should remain in the European Economic Area (EEA) and the Customs Union:

Starmer’s back on his path to rejoin…or as he calls it, “reset the relationship”, with the EU today, visiting German Chancellor Scholz to discuss what the UK and EU will collaborate on in the future. It’s a long list: “market access, critical science, innovation and tech, clean energy, trade across the North Sea, supply chain resilience, energy security and green transition education, biodiversity, and the environment.” ‘Market access’ and ‘trade across the North Sea’ will be sounding the alarm bells for Brexiteers who were promised the UK would have its independence from the bloc…

Number 10 are sticking to the line that Starmer’s push for closer ties with the EU is all about “economic growth”, despite the UK outperforming many EU countries in that area – last quarter, the UK’s GDP grew by 0.6% compared to Germany’s 0.3%, the Union’s so-called powerhouse. Meanwhile, Starmer has been cautioned against cosying up to bloc by top economists, who’ve said this will actually drive down growth. EU sources have reportedly warned that if Starmer wants collaboration on these issues listed above, the UK will be obliged to align with European laws such as food safety and further regulations. No amount of press briefings that Starmer isn’t planning to rejoin will pull the wool over Guido’s eyes…

The Times reported last night that Government ministers are considering a plan to allow Europeans under 30-years-old to live and work in the UK as part of Labour’s crusade to “reset” post-Brexit relations with Brussels. Meanwhile, net migration is still four times higher than in 2019, even without this proposed scheme in place. Whilst free movement for young people itself isn’t such a terrible idea, it’s just another sign of Labour’s intentions to cosy up to the EU. This could just be the beginning of further cross-border movement talks…

Labour have denied the reports, slippery stating they have “no plans” (yet?) to agree a youth mobility scheme, though government sources say something has to give on free movement if Labour are set on redrawing agreements on trade, defence and immigration. As Guido has said before, give and take means give and take…

Starmer might be plotting a ‘reset’ in UK-EU relations, but top economists are sounding the alarm, urging him to reject the siren calls to rejoin the EU, Single Market, or Customs Union. The real key to growth is in harnessing the benefits of Brexit: redefining regulations and strike better trade deals outside the bloc…

A report from the Centre for Policy Studies today notes that strengthening ties with Brussels is far from the solution to the UK’s growth challenges. Despite this, Starmer said he wants to negotiate an agri-food agreement with the EU to ease border checks, a move that would inevitably require alignment with EU rules, as well as abolishing the decades-old  European Scrutiny Committee. Meanwhile, while the Euro area remains the main source of weakness in manufacturing as the UK surges, and UK’s GDP is expected to grow by 07.% in Q2, while the Eurozone only grew by 0.3%. If Labour is truly “pro-growth,” Starmer would be wise to remember the EU isn’t where he’ll find it…

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…