Starmer's EU ‘reset' risks betraying Brexit

Telegraph

09-05-2025

Having brought trade negotiations with the United States to a lacklustre conclusion, Sir Keir Starmer is now preparing for the UK-EU summit later this month. As the contours of a potential deal with the bloc begin to emerge, concerns are rising over what the Prime Minister is giving up, and what he is winning in return.
A leaked draft of a new security partnership commits the UK to consider sending its Armed Forces abroad on EU military missions, and would effectively lock Britain's decision-making powers in Nato, the G7, the G20 and the United Nations to the EU in an aligned foreign policy, severely limiting the UK's room for independence. Separately, we may be preparing to concede long-term access for European boats to fish in our waters, and to agree a 'youth mobility' scheme for the under-30s.
In exchange for these concessions, Britain is seeking dynamic alignment with EU rules on food standards to reduce border frictions, and for Brussels to consider its participation in a £127 billion rearmament programme, with no actual guarantee of participation.
While British sources have insisted that no final deal has been reached, the direction of travel is concerning. It is entirely possible that we will strike a deeply uneven deal at considerable cost. Should this happen, it will reflect at least in part Sir Keir's failure to update his world-view to account for developments since 2016, a moment when Britain's leverage with the bloc was at its lowest.
With the German economy crushed by catastrophic mismanagement, populists surging across the Continent, a major land war unfolding on the EU's borders, and the US increasingly unwilling to shoulder the cost of defending it, the ability of the UK to win concessions is much greater.
Regrettably, this appears to have passed the Government by. Downing Street is still acting as if London is in far greater need of a deal than Brussels, and as if each crumb that falls from the EU's table should be gratefully received or dearly purchased. It is an attitude of a piece with his calamitous approach to negotiations over the Chagos Islands, and his willingness to give up too much to American and Indian negotiators in exchange for too little in return.
Sir Keir, an ideological Remainer, may have struck trade deals which will make realignment with the EU more difficult. He has not, however, struck deals which will make it impossible, and Britain should be deeply wary of his attempts to negotiate closer ties. The sting in the tail may be a real risk of London surrendering its hard-won Brexit freedoms without a fight, slipping into the EU's regulatory orbit without a voice and without a vote, making the path to rejoining all too real.