EXCLUSIVE UK-EU reset deal: Globalist Keir Starmer is pushing Britain back into the European Union by stealth, former Brexit party MEP Alex Phillips tells the Mail's 'Apocalypse Now?' podcast
Keir Starmer 's 'rushed' reset deal with the European Union represents a first step in Labour 's plan to push the UK back into trading bloc 'by stealth', former Brexit party MEP Alex Phillips has told the Mail's 'Apocalypse Now?' podcast.
The broadcaster said our 'globalist' Prime Minister had 'fallen at the first hurdle' in negotiations with Brussels, awarding too many concessions for 'not much in return'.
Starmer's wide ranging UK-EU reset deal was announced on Monday and included new agreements with Europe over trade, defence and travel.
The UK had to concede ground on fishing and youth mobility, in exchange for access to European food and defence markets. Starmer described his deal as a 'win-win' and insists it sticks within Labour's manifesto promises not to renege on Brexit.
Speaking to special correspondent David Patrikarkos, Ms Phillips said: 'I am not one of those Brexit zealots who believe we should have absolutely no relationship with the EU.
Listen to 'Apocalypse Now?' wherever you get your podcasts. Listen now
'There are areas in which we should certainly cooperate. I think the information sharing over people smuggling gangs is positive.
'But, and there's a big but – there doesn't seem to have been much negotiation at all. It doesn't even seem to be a deal. A deal implies that we get positive things in return, which reflect British interests.
'There are so many areas where it seems like a first step of many, which opens the door for more and more deals. I worry it will begin to look like rejoining the EU by stealth.'
Two of the areas which have sparked the most controversy are a commitment to dynamic alignment on trade and an agreement over continued access to Britain's fishing waters.
Labour ministers approved a 12-year extension to an existing arrangement which allows British waters to be fished by EU boats.
On these parts of the deal, Ms Phillips said: 'The 12-year extension poses a genuine risk of decimating the UK's fishing industry.
'In 12 years time, a lot of fishermen will retire, and you question how many will be joining the industry when they're very limited over what they can catch.
'In some respects, the erosion of barriers to trade is a good thing – but dynamic alignment where we have to follow EU rules and be under the jurisdictions of European courts is a very perilous path to go down.
'We know that Ursula von der Leyen will release a paper soon which will try to tie the UK into what amounts to joint foreign policy.
'I just feel the deal has been rushed. I do not feel like enough concessions and exceptions were asked for. I worry about the future, because Starmer has only been in power for a year – and this is going to be the first step of many.'
The television presenter represented the Brexit Party in the European parliament for 8 months, from July 2019 to the UK's exit from the EU in January 2020.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch labelled the new deal as a 'betrayal', while Nigel Farage, head of a surging Reform UK, called it an 'abject surrender to Brussels'.
Ms Phillips raised the EU's initial reaction to Russia's invasion of Ukraine as an example of why further alignment with the bloc is no good thing.
'On the outbreak of the invasion, the UK was quick to move forward', Philips remarked.
'We armed Ukraine, we applied sanctions, we were straight out of the blocks. Whereas the EU dithered.
'When it comes to crises, we have seen time and time again that the EU are slow to act. It either responds too slowly or uses a crisis to push forward its own imperial agenda.
'It's so important that Britain remains a sovereign and Atlanticist nation.'
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