Monday briefing: Reports of late night breakthrough in landmark UK-EU reset deal

The Guardian

19-05-2025

Good morning. Today, Keir Starmer will meet with EU leaders at a crucial Downing Street summit. On Saturday a press release all but said the deal was done – but on Sunday night government sources said talks were going 'down to the wire'. Then, a few minutes ago, the Guardian's Pippa Crerar reported a late breakthrough – but noted that there are 'still some steps to take'. You might remember the old Brexit phrase: 'Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed'.
Since Labour returned to government, it has made concerted efforts to warm up the frosty post-Brexit relationship. And the eye-catching news over the weekend that British holidaymakers could face shorter airport queues from this summer would certainly help sell the deal domestically.
But progress towards a new agreement, providing the government with a third success after trade deals with India and the US, was complicated by frustration from EU diplomats at the UK's refusal to budge on its red lines around issues such as fishing rights and youth mobility. Meanwhile, a measure of Starmer's domestic political difficulties has come in the assessment from the Conservatives and Reform UK, even before the details have been released, that the deal amounts to a 'surrender'.
For today's newsletter, I spoke with the Guardian's Brussels correspondent Jennifer Rankin about the thorniest issues between the two sides – and the prizes on offer for their resolution. Here are the headlines.
Israel-Gaza war | The Israeli army has announced the start of a large-scale offensive in Gaza as a second day of indirect ceasefire talks in Qatar ended without any breakthrough. Rescuers and medical sources said as many as 130 people, including many women and children, were killed in a wave of Israeli strikes overnight and through Sunday.
European elections | The pro-EU centrist mayor of Bucharest, Nicuşor Dan, was on track to win Romania's presidential election, sitting eight points clear of far-right rival George Simion with 99% of votes counted. In the first round of Poland's presidential election, the pro-European centrist Rafał Trzaskowski and populist right historian Karol Nawrocki each secured about 30% of the vote.
US politics | Joe Biden, the former US president, has been diagnosed with an 'aggressive form' of prostate cancer that has spread to his bones, his personal office announced on Sunday. Biden's doctors say that the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management.
Catholicism | Pope Leo XIV said he wanted the Catholic church to be a 'small leaven of unity' in a time of 'too much discord and too many wounds' during his inaugural papal mass. An estimated 150,000 pilgrims gathered for the mass in St Peter's Square.
Media | Gary Lineker is expected to announce he is leaving the BBC on Monday after apologising for amplifying online material with antisemitic connotations. Lineker will present his final Match of the Day on Sunday but will reportedly not present the 2026 World Cup or next season's FA Cup.
Today, as Starmer welcomes the European Council president, António Costa, and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, to Downing Street, he will be keen to frame it as a pragmatic reset in the UK's relationship with the EU.
The government needs to stick to its promises to cut spending, slash immigration numbers and guarantee the UK's sovereignty while also laying the groundwork to secure a future deal with Britain's most important trading partner.
Three prospective agreements have been flagged, on trade, defence, and a statement of geopolitical solidarity. And Starmer is said to have sought to rebuild trust with a promise to keep talks 'in the room' without media leaks. But there has also been a view among senior EU diplomats that Britain is demanding concessions without offering anything in return. 'There has been a period of hard negotiations,' said the defence secretary, John Healey. 'We're at the last hard yards of the last hard days.' The BBC reported that the final obstacles were resolved at about 10.30pm last night.
Why is improving trade relations with the EU so important?
While landing deals with India and the US is still a huge win for Starmer, the EU remains the UK's largest and most important trading partner by some stretch. In 2024 it accounted for 41% of UK exports and 51% of all imported goods.
While Starmer has said that making a deal with the EU would be 'incredibly beneficial', others have gone further, saying that a reset in trade relations with the EU is crucial to the recovery of the UK economy. 'The EU is the UK's biggest and important trading partner, so it is important to get the reset right even if none of the individual elements will make a dramatic difference to economic growth, which is the government's top priority,' says Jennifer.
Despite the government's red lines ruling out a customs union or rejoining the single market, the EU has complained that it does not really know what the UK wants.
'Starmer came into power wanting a big reset with the EU, and I think this raised expectations from their side that they would make quite bold moves back towards Europe, but those expectations have so far been disappointed,' she says. 'What the UK government is actually prepared to offer so far is pretty limited.'
How important is a security and defence partnership?
Jennifer says that the easiest – and one of the most important – deal under discussion is a new UK-EU security and defence partnership, likely to be the centrepiece of what is agreed.
'The feeling is that the security and defence pact will be the launching point for another set of negotiations, because with a war actively raging on the continent, everyone is singing from the same song sheet on the need for greater security cooperation,' she says.
The UK has said it hopes the proposal can extend to areas beyond military defence such as economic security, infrastructure, migration and transnational crime.
What about the veterinary deal?
One of the UK's key aims has been to sign what it frames as a 'veterinary' deal removing some of the border checks and inspections on the movement of food, drink, animals and plants into the EU.
However, this would mean that the UK would have to align with some EU regulations on food and drink standards – rules that are overseen by the European court of justice. One complexity is the demand from Brussels for 'dynamic alignment' where the UK must adhere to evolving regulations without getting a say in their formation.
'Although voters seem relaxed about common standards, this would prove politically controversial, because hardline Eurosceptics in the Conservative party and Reform UK would accuse the government of giving up sovereignty,' says Jennifer.
'Another issue is that some EU countries are saying, why should we give you this when you're not prepared to move on fishing, where we're asking for long-term guaranteed access to British waters.' Where the negotiations landed to resolve this issue should become clear later today.
Why has fishing been such a big problem?
Fishing has always been a huge sticking point between the UK and the EU.
After Brexit, many British fishers felt betrayed when Boris Johnson's government agreed to let EU fishing boats continue to access UK coastal waters until 2026.
With these arrangements set to expire, the EU wants them extended. The UK is understood to have offered continued access to fishing grounds for another four years to 2030.
The EU wants a longer-term arrangement and has been frustrated that the UK is demanding a veterinary deal but won't reciprocate on fishing.
'Taking back control of 'our' fishing waters was sold as one of the benefits of Brexit, so it's a sensitive issue for the government to cede ground on, especially with Reform UK looking over their shoulder,' says Jennifer. 'On the other hand, the EU believe that without a longer-term deal, it would destroy European fishing industries.'
Jennifer says this is a real point of tension. 'The UK has always been really keen to try and keep negotiations on issues like fishing and the veterinary deal separate,' says Jennifer. 'But some member states are pushing for there to be a hard link between fisheries and a veterinary deal before an agreement on either is struck.'
What about youth mobility?
The EU has been very keen to strike an agreement on a 'youth mobility scheme', a reciprocal programme that would offer visas to 18 to 30-year-olds to come to the UK from the EU, and vice versa, for work, study and travel.
As Lisa O'Carroll set out in this explainer, member states are so keen to get this across the line that they have scaled back the original three-year proposal to one year, with a quota of between 50,000 to 70,000 young people going in either direction each year. The Sunday Times reported yesterday (£) that the new crackdown on legal migration announced last week was intended to give the minister for European affairs Nick Thomas-Symonds more leeway to negotiate.
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Yet this has proved to be a politically thorny issue for the UK government, and the key details are not expected to be worked out until next year. 'For a government who wants to save money and reduce immigration, this has been another block,' Jennifer says. 'The idea of having an open-ended agreement with the EU where you could have thousands of young people coming to the UK every year, which they'd have to count in their immigration statistics, was just not flying with the Starmer government.'
What political pressures is the government under?
While Starmer has said he is not interested in rehashing the ghosts of Brexit past, his political opponents have other ideas – and whatever concessions or agreements have been made are likely to be weaponised against him.
On one side of the political spectrum, the Liberal Democrats have said that Starmer and his government are being too cautious and intractable, and businesses are desperate to exploit opportunities to work and trade with Europe.
Meanwhile, Reform UK has dismissed the summit as 'the Great British sellout' and the Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch, has accused Starmer of preparing to 'trade away our sovereignty behind closed doors'. The Mail on Sunday headlined its front page coverage 'Brexit? What Brexit?' However triumphant the announcement today, that kind of coverage is likely to continue.
Sophie McBain's interview with Yiyun Li, who has written a memoir of the loss of her two sons to suicide, is an extraordinary account of a writer who 'rejects the idea that grief is a process, that there's light at the end of the tunnel': 'My children were not my burden,' she says. 'My sadness is not my burden.' Archie
Social scientist Jonathan R Goodman asks if we are hardwired to fall for autocrats for the ongoing Big Idea series. A fascinating exploration of what might be behind the startling statistic that half of all 13 to 27-year-olds would prefer to be living in a dictatorship. Annie
The fact that The Thick Of It is now hopelessly overused as a descriptor of British political chicanery can't take away from its stunning originality way back when – and on the 20th anniversary of its arrival, Tim Jonze's oral history is a very satisfying tribute. Archie
This piece from Athena Kugblenu is great on why the ship has sailed for chefs trying to ban phones in restaurants: 'If you want my money, you have to accept my scrolling.' Annie
Donald Trump's tour of the Gulf states had a very clear shift in US policy at its heart, Nesrine Malik writes: 'You are rich, we need you. You do you.' What is much less clear is whether they can influence events in Gaza – the key measure of their 'ability to stabilise and determine the region's political future'. Archie
Football | Sonia Bompastor's Chelsea side were at their clinical best as they completed a 30-game unbeaten domestic treble with a 3-0 win over Manchester United in the FA Cup final. At the first sold-out Wembley Women's FA Cup final, two goals from Sandy Baltimore (above) and one from Catarina Macario secured the trophy for Chelsea.
Formula One | Red Bull's Max Verstappen won his fourth Grand Prix in a row at Imola with one of the best overtaking moves of his career, passing Oscar Piastri at turn one on the first lap. With McLaren's Piastri second and his team-mate Lando Norris in third, the result keeps Verstappen at the centre of the championship fight.
Golf | Scottie Scheffler enjoyed a comfortable victory in the US PGA at Quail Hollow, finishing five shots clear of the field to claim the third major of his career.
The Guardian carries the late-breaking news that 'Biden has 'aggressive form' of prostate cancer', while the lead is 'Talks on reset of UK-EU relations go 'down to wire' before summit'. 'Labour revolt over Brexit betrayal' is the Telegraph's take while the Times has 'EU's fishing demands pose late threat to deal'. 'PM risks Brexit vote 'betrayal'' says the Mail under the strapline 'Starmer's surrender summit' and the Express carries Tory leader Kemi Badenoch's message: 'PM is hellbent on selling out our Brexit freedoms'.
We dial it back down with the i paper: 'Cheaper food and boost to trade – as UK agrees to follow EU rules in today's big Brexit reset'. There's a very similar headline for that story in the Financial Times, but its splash is on a different topic: 'Boutique lenders power post-Covid upswing in blank-cheque Spac deals'. 'Hold on for your lives' – the Metro leads with 'Tall ship terror' after a sailboat's masts snapped off under the Brooklyn Bridge. 'You little beauties' – that's the Mirror after Jesy Nelson from Little Mix had twins.
Gary Younge on being pigeonholed as a black journalist
Former Guardian columnist Gary Younge reflects on the pressures faced by minority journalists to focus on certain types of stories, and how they can break free of 'the pigeonhole'
A bit of good news to remind you that the world's not all bad
When a man who is a retailer, designer and clothing manufacturer tells us that we should all be buying less stuff, it may seem a bit contradictory at best, and hypocritical at worst. But for Patrick Grant, his campaign against fast fashion is about encouraging consumers to make conscious shopping choices and focusing on quality over quantity.
The Scottish businessman, who is also a judge on The Great British Sewing Bee, launched the for-profit social enterprise Community Clothing in 2016. Its philosophy is simple: make things locally, make them to last and make them affordable, thereby sustaining jobs, communities and the planet. 'The whole idea of fashion with a big 'F' is a deliberate act on the part of commercial businesses to encourage people to buy things they don't need,' he says.
And finally, the Guardian's puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow.
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