The Tories have today converted Kemi’s Brexit tests into an Opposition Day Motion ahead of the ‘reset’ summit on Monday. Make hay while you can table opposition motions…
The motion says the Commons “recognises that the Conservative Party stands by the result of the 2016 referendum to leave the European Union” and restates the Tories’ red lines:
Kemi finally said she was against Labour’s deal over the weekend. In a tit for tat Labour has tabled their own amendment to the motion which replaces the commitment with a statement calling for a deal “in the UK’s national interest…to deepen ties with its European friends” and “recognises the Government’s ambition to negotiate a sanitary and phytosanitary and veterinary agreement to address the cost of food and to tackle a range of other issues to reduce barriers to trade.” That equals rule-taking…
A Tory source tells Guido: “Everything people voted for – the freedom to control our own borders, laws and money – will be sacrificed by Keir Starmer to appease Labour’s London Leftie Luvvies with #FBPE in their X bios. It’s a sell-out of the 2016 referendum on an industrial scale.”
Curiously all Reform MPs have tabled an amendment of their own signing the party up to the Tories’ exact wording. Warms the heart…
Labour last week finally admitted that it was pursuing a youth mobility deal with the EU after claiming for months that there was “no plan” for one. Coming up on Monday at the EU “strategic partnership” summit in London…
Funnily enough the makeup of EU youth citizens has changed significantly since we were last privy to their arrival. That’s thanks to some wide-ranging migrant naturalisation schemes introduced in recent years…
Guido’s analysis shows that the combined impact these new routes to EU citizenship will lead to between three and four million extra EU citizens, a large proportion of which are below 30, equipped with full mobility rights by 2030. A hugely-expanded mobile workforce of naturalised asylum seekers for the UK to be signing up to…
This is the height of irony on the day that Starmer announced his intention to control legal migration in the future. Claims are that arrivals will be capped will be no reassurance to those familiar with the UK’s ability to track incomings and outgoings. Millions of newly-naturalised EU citizens will therefore gain access to the UK under a deal. Brexit – what Brexit?
As Guido pointed out, the bitter lesson of EU negotiations is the UK has to take a maximalist position in order to get anything out of Brussels. The Labour government is sucking up to Brussels at every turn, so it looks like the UK will be shafted at Starmer’s EU summit this month…
Kemi is due to meet Pedro Serrano, the EU’s ambassador in London, today. Briefings out of Tory HQ say she will tell the EU big wig that Starmer’s deal “isn’t worth the paper it’s written on”. That’s the way to do it, better late than never…
It’s a stronger form of words than the Tories’ previous ‘five tests’ on the deal, which made veteran leavers break out in hives. It is not clear what the Tories will do in the Commons when votes related to the deal come before parliament. Badenoch says: “The Labour Government will be doing this in all its negotiations and it is the job of the opposition, my job, to hold them to account for their decisions. I do not expect to be discussing any details of negotiations when we meet or break any protocol.” A bit cautious given Starmer broke that protocol by shadow campaigning for rejoin during the Conservative government…
With the UK-EU summit coming up on 19 May negotiations are underway for a closer defence pact with the EU. It is Labour who is pushing for a more “ambitious” arrangement…
Striking in a draft version of the deal is a requirement for UK troops to take part in “civilian missions and military operations and missions, upon the invitation of the EU.” Signing up to the EU army…
With ten days to go there is no mention of the EU’s €150 billion ‘Safe’ defence fund or a path for the UK to join it – a key goal for Labour. Signing up for this deal is meant to be the main prerequisite for accessing the fund…
Brussels has shoved in the UK’s involvement in projects on “artificial intelligence, fake news, and terror” but has avoided any reference to helping tackle people smugglers or illegal immigration in general. Starmer will also have to extend EU fishing access for three years to sign up to the deal. What is the UK getting out of it, exactly?
This morning in the Commons Tory MP Harriet Baldwin questioned the government over the new Regulation and Metrology Bill – a bill that effectively grants the secretary of state sweeping powers to unilaterally adopt EU rules without parliamentary scrutiny. Baldwin asked trade minister Douglas Alexander whether the government would rule out the “UK becoming an EU rule-taker”. Alexander refused:
“I’m slightly worried that the question adds two and two together and gets about 97. The fact is the act recognises the need to find a way forward on standards with the European Union.”
Meanwhile the EU is reportedly threatening to impose a time limit on any agreement aimed at reducing red tape on British food and drink exports – unless it secures long-term access to UK fishing waters ahead of the EU-UK summit. As a Labour councillor touted yesterday, Starmer’s ‘Trojan Horse’ plan to rejoin the EU is well underway…
Alarm bells will be ringing across Leave-voting Britain as Labour councillor Sebastian Salek takes to X to openly cheer the government’s creeping return to the EU on the eve of local elections. The Waltham Forest councillor proudly declares that Labour has already begun the process of rejoining the bloc – “not through campaigns or slogans,” but through “technical deals and unsexy laws.” As Guido has been warning…
It’s not obvious yet, but the EU rejoining process has already begun.
Not through campaigns or slogans – but technical deals and unsexy laws.
5 signs it’s happening:
— Sebastian Salek (@sebastiansalek) April 29, 2025
Salek helpfully lays out Labour’s rejoin process in a thread: praising the youth mobility scheme with the EU, flagging the UK’s acceptance of Brussels’ product standards, celebrating realignment with EU carbon rules, and hailing what he calls a “big shift” in the political narrative. He concludes that “step one of rejoining is rebuilding trust and institutional ties… this is how it starts.” Local Labour reps touting backdoor EU deals to woo voters proving Starmer’s rejoiner army is well on the march back to Brussels…
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.”