A few headlines this morning put a downer on Starmer’s vaunted EU surrender as the rest of the media finally catches up with Guido:
The media has just got round to reading the terms of the deal after providing breathless reporting about “shorter airport queues this summer” before beginning a quiet roll-back once the deal was announced. Always the same…
E-gate use was one of the main benefits purported by Starmer when the deal was announced: “This partnership helps British holidaymakers, who will be able to use e-gates when they travel to Europe, ending those huge queues at passport control.” As Guido revealed the Tories wrote to the government to complain about their misleading promotion of the E-gate farce…
As co-conspirators know from last week:
Now Brits who expect Starmer to have shortened their summer queues will be bitterly disappointed. Nice…
Eyebrows were raised on Monday when Downing Street put out this post on X:
Instead of waiting in long queues at passport control, Brits travelling to Europe will now be able to use e-Gates.
So you can start your holiday sooner. pic.twitter.com/O7JuXbqdfP
— UK Prime Minister (@10DowningStreet) May 19, 2025
This is despite the fact that no EU-wide agreement on e-gates has actually been reached. The latest line from Downing Street is the UK has already started talks with individual EU member states to use e-gates for Britons. Already got that with Portugal – without handing over fishing rights…
Guido can reveal the Tories have now written to Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary Cat Little to complain about that X post, which they claim is a “blatant misuse of official communication channels.” Wouldn’t be the first time…
“The availability of e-gates for British citizens remains at the discretion of individual EU member states. This is not a guaranteed outcome of the deal, and presenting it as such is a distortion designed for political credit… It is an abuse of government resources to make speculative claims dressed up as policy achievements for clear partisan advantage.”
The entire negotiating point, which is celebrated by Labour as one of the main wins from their surrender deal, is entirely moot anyway seeing as long-held plans by the EU to digitise international airport borders for non-EU citizens are ploughing ahead anyway, due to start in October. This is the “Entry-Exit System” which is introducing e-gates to “replace the current practice of manual stamping of passports which is time consuming, and will facilitate the effective detection of over-stayers”…
Labour spin is overblown on three counts. A rough deal gets rougher…
Read the Tories’ full letter below:
Starmer has clearly been listening to Stella Creasy’s band of EU rejoin campaigners in the Labour Party. Replying to Ed Davey in the Commons the PM said the surrender deal was just the first step:
“It is intended that this is beginning of a process to complete on what we’ve already agreed but also to have annual summits so that we can take our cooperation and coordination further step by step and we will do that whilst keeping to the red lines that we had in our manifesto.”
One example from yesterday has raised eyebrows in the UK defence community. The existing defence statement doesn’t commit to the Barnier 2018 template on defence cooperation and there are no binding commitments to European Defence Fund, European Defence Agency, and Permanent Structured Cooperation systems. Von der Leyen hinted yesterday there is worse to come on defence:
“Then there comes the second step that is necessary to negotiate a second agreement and here we detail out it’s again a process of detailing out budget contribution reciprocal market access and rules on security of supply and this will give that’s important in the end the UK industrial participation this is the goal that we have together.”
There is more to negotiate – on youth mobility Starmer refused to set a timescale and said Labour was aiming to “move at pace” to reopen the border to EU under-35s. Annual summits will demand annual progress towards the EU…
Starmer is in the Commons to give a ministerial statement on the UK-EU surrender summit. He will field questions from MPs. Expect fish, energy, and defence to come up…
Starmer says of youth mobility: “And it delivers for our young people, because we are now on a path towards a controlled youth experience scheme with firm caps on numbers and visa controls. A relationship we have with so many countries around the world, some actually even set up by the party opposite. We should be proud to give our young people that opportunity.” No word on how much it would be ‘capped’ by…
Reaction to Starmer’s EU surrender have continued to pour in overnight and into the morning. Priti Patel told BBC Breakfast that “no reset is better than a bad reset”…
Disbelief at the 12-year fishing agreement has been particularly stinging. Wales’ Labour first minister Eluned Morgan said yesterday evening that she “would have liked more discussion…We’ve had an idea of what’s been going on the whole time but the detail wasn’t finalised until the past few days.” Hardly the boldest opposition to the PM there…
Fishermen’s and fisherwomen’s organisations are reeling at the sellout. Scottish Fishermen’s Federation CEO Elspeth Macdonald said this morning on 5 Live that the deal is a “really unfair and unbalanced arrangement… We believe there will be some advantages, but those advantages do not outweigh the cost of giving away free access to UK fishing waters for 12 years.” Mike Cohen, CEO of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations adds that annual fishing quota negotiations were the “the best card” Britain had in trying to get a “fairer division’ of rights“: “We had a card in those negotiations with the EU and we have given it to the other side.” Could another Battle of the Thames be on the cards…
Negotiators say four-year quotas had been agreed until Starmer gave an interview with The Sunday Times in which he expressed keenness to pursue a youth mobility deal, at which point it held the UK over a barrel on fishing until a final overnight capitulation. Cheers, Keir…
While there is panic over the fishing rights surrender the EU-UK deal features significant alignment on carbon pricing. The key points as agreed by Starmer and the EU are:
Guido spoke to independent energy consultant Kathryn Porter who sounded the alarm over higher prices:
“Since Keir Starmer announced his intention to harmonise the UK and EU ETS, UK carbon prices have increased significantly. Full harmonisation could end up adding more than £200 million per year to electricity bills.
UK carbon prices have been lower as a result of a surplus of allowances due to de-industrialisation. It’s hard to see how we will benefit from harmonisation. The “level playing field” sounds like a mechanism to remove the UK allowances surplus with no benefits to UK consumers.“
Within the EU prices are currently roughly £10/ptCO2 higher than here. ‘Savings’ spin from Starmer and the EU is centred on the introduction of the bloc’s carbon border tariffs next year. In essence energy costs are being immediately hiked for the UK in return for a future tariff reduction – even on those who don’t export to the EU – while the UK also agrees to take EU rules, ECJ jurisdiction, and pay the EU for the pleasure. The EU will further decide who in the UK is exempt from its hiked carbon pricing. Got all that?
The Institute of Economic Affairs’ energy analyst Andy Mayer adds: “The smarter strategy would be to retain control of our own carbon policy, and cut it drastically to compete with the EU, encouraging jobs and growth, including in low carbon technologies also impacted by high energy prices.” Not one for the Labour Rejoin cabal…
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.”