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UK not rejoining the EU with new deal, says minister
UK not rejoining the EU with new deal, says minister

The Guardian

time20-05-2025

  • Business
  • The Guardian

UK not rejoining the EU with new deal, says minister

Update: Date: 2025-05-20T07:43:04.000Z Title: Priti Patel: UK-EU is a betrayal of Brexit by 'smug' Keir Starmer Content: The shadow foreign secretary, Priti Patel, has said that the government's deal with the EU is a betrayal of Brexit, and accused the prime minister of making 'smug' comments when announcing it. Speaking on the GB News channel, the Conservative MP for Witham said: Keir Starmer never believed in Brexit. He spent all of his time campaigning to unpick Brexit. He was being dishonest with the British public. He basically did not go into the general election last year and say that his reset would mean that we'd become a rule taker all over again. He deceived the British public. Asked about Starmer's comment that the deal put the country back on the world stage, Patel said: Quite frankly, that is utter rubbish from Keir Starmer. Not for the first time. It was Britain that led the international efforts when it came to Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine. So I think he needs to go away and do some homework. And of course, it was Conservatives in government that led the way when it came to Britain post-Brexit, our place in the world, securing those trade deals, over 70 trade agreements during our tenure in government. So, we're not going to listen to that nonsense from Keir Starmer. He just constantly wants to betray Britain and the democratic vote of the British people. And I think he needs to really go back and recalibrate his very smug comments. Update: Date: 2025-05-20T07:41:05.000Z Title: Industry minister: UK-EU deal does not mean the country is rejoining the EU Content: Any cost to taxpayers from the government's deal with the EU will be outweighed by the economic benefits, industry minister Sarah Jones has said, insisting that the UK was not rejoining the EU. Speaking on Sky News, she said: We are not paying, through any of this, for access to markets. That is not what we are doing. We are not rejoining the EU. Where we will pay, and these things will be negotiated, where we will pay is where there are joint costs that need to be paid. Update: Date: 2025-05-20T07:40:18.000Z Title: Welcome and opening summary … Content: Good morning, welcome to our live coverage of UK politics for Tuesday. Here are your headlines … Industry minister Sarah Jones has said the UK-EU deal announced yesterday by prime minister Keir Starmer and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen does not mean that Britain is rejoining the EU. She claimed any cost to taxpayers would be outweighed by the economic benefits Shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel has said that 'when Labour negotiates, Britain always seems to lose', and accused the government of being misleading over the deal. She said the deal was a betrayal of Brexit Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said the government is nearing a trade pact with six Gulf nations, including Qatar and Saudi Arabia It is Martin Belam with you today. Cabinet meets this morning. We might get a Commons statement from the prime minister later on, and the chancellor is expected to make a media appearance. You can reach me at

Starmer's post-Brexit reset offers clear benefits – but there is political risk too
Starmer's post-Brexit reset offers clear benefits – but there is political risk too

The Guardian

time19-05-2025

  • Business
  • The Guardian

Starmer's post-Brexit reset offers clear benefits – but there is political risk too

There were two moments at the UK-EU summit where it felt like a corner had truly been turned. It was not on agrifoods, nor youth mobility, defence or fishing. When Keir Starmer said the UK had changed, the most symbolic evidence of that came in a press release from No 10 that set out the terms of the agreement brokered at Lancaster House. It acknowledged, for the first time, what successive British governments have spent years denying – that Brexit has damaged Britain. It laid out the figures, the UK has suffered a '21% drop in exports and 7% drop in imports'. Finally, the charade is over. And the British public know that. Half of Britons now say the decision to leave the EU was the wrong one and significant numbers of those who did not vote or were too young to vote think Brexit was the wrong decision. Poll after poll suggests the British public believe the UK is now worse off – although often that stops short of a demand the UK rejoin. Secondly, and equally symbolic, was the acknowledgement that the changes proposed would require a vote in parliament. That confirmation came from No 10 almost as an afterthought. But there was a time not so long ago when the prospect of a vote in parliament on a deal like this would have been the top line of every news story. Gone are the days when Steve Baker or Bill Cash would be on the bulletins crying foul at every line of compromise. Starmer is the first prime minister in more than a decade who doesn't have to worry about that vote at all, despite some Labour MPs who, in red wall seats facing Reform, feel nervous. But most of Starmer's parliamentary party would probably prefer to see a deal that went even further. There will be no anguished briefings from rebel Conservative Eurosceptics who once effectively held Downing Street hostage and who brought down two prime ministers. Kemi Badenoch's vow to oppose all the changes was irrelevant. It is that radically changed approach and circumstance – referred to time and again by Ursula von der Leyen as she praised 'dear Keir' at Monday's press conference – which has seen this EU reset over the line less than six months after Starmer set the date. But that stability in parliament certainly does not mean that there is no political risk to this deal. There will be a battle on the front pages and the airwaves to set the narrative. Starmer's main political rival now is not a wounded Tory party but the godfather of Brexit, Nigel Farage. For Starmer, it will be a race to sell the benefits of his agrifoods and energy deals – cheaper food and cheaper energy bills – combined with quicker queues at the airport for frustrated Britons trying to placate their children as they land from their holidays. From Farage and Badenoch, there are cries of betrayal on two fronts. The first is fishing, a 12-year deal to keep the status quo when the industry had hoped for better terms from 2026. That was the price of a permanent agrifoods deal, worth so much more to the economy but potentially at the expense of such a symbolically important British industry. And the second is the sense that Britain has crossed the Rubicon that makes it a rule-taker, agreeing dynamic alignment on standards and a role for the European court of justice. No 10 is gambling that the public has lost interest in much of the technical aspects of the trade talks, as long as Brexit negotiations do not dominate the media discourse or are not seen to be distracting senior politicians from domestic matters. But there is also a risk to a distracted public, that voters already inclined to feel angry towards the government will see headlines about a 'Brexit betrayal' and assume the worst, without reading the details. It is this arena where Farage has always had his greatest success.

Starmer's power is propped up on borrowed votes. Here's why I won't be lending mine next time…
Starmer's power is propped up on borrowed votes. Here's why I won't be lending mine next time…

The Independent

time17-05-2025

  • Politics
  • The Independent

Starmer's power is propped up on borrowed votes. Here's why I won't be lending mine next time…

When Labour is in power, it's customary for the left wing to spend much of its time grousing about how badly it's doing, whereas those on the right have remained staunchly silent about criticism of its leadership, no matter how outwardly deranged. Where then, to start on Keir Starmer 's Labour, which in its much-touted plans to be the Grown-Ups coming to clear up the British Playroom after the Big Argument, now seems more determined to cosplay as Nigel Farage than to take advantage of its massive majority and put some actual Labour policies in place. As with many people staggered by the Conservatives' plunge into self-destruction, I did what I could to avoid them getting into power again. I lent my vote to Labour. Unlike many people, my vote made little difference. My constituency, previously Streatham, was Conservative for 74 years until turning resolutely Labour in 1992. Where Labour should not be complacent is that my vote, as with those of many who embraced tactical voting came from fear. The prospect of another five years of political sleaze made me feel quite unwell. However, I had also hoped that things could only get better, as I dimly remembered from school. As was the case in 1997 a 2024 vote for Labour was a vote for hope. Yet all I have seen since Labour came to power is shocking. A government whose only inspiration for the British public is repeated epithets about the Conservatives' 14 years in power and the ensuing black hole. I had hoped for bold steps towards helping the roots of Britain's problems: reinvigorating youth clubs and SureStart centres so young people didn't turn to gangs and online influencers for connection, and supporting parents so future generations felt confident in affording to have children. I'd certainly hoped for appreciation of the workers from abroad who keep our health and care sectors running because successive governments are apparently too miserly to pay their workers properly. Instead, splendid: three more prisons to be built rather than anything positive to reduce poverty, increase opportunity and reduce reoffending. Well done Labour! This isn't quite "40 new hospitals" territory, but it feels awfully close. A conversation around immigration that is now in its fourth day of focusing on Starmer's inflammatory language and apparent denigration of every migrant in the UK, rather than finding solutions. Labour has been by no means alone in its inaction on Israel's enforced famine of Gaza, but for a generation raised on Blue Peter coverage of Bosnia and genocide in Rwanda, its silence has said volumes. And it's not just the very young that Labour is alienating, it's millennials and Gen X. Recent decisions on PIP, and disability benefits more widely, have seemed incomprehensible if not downright cruel. Labour seems to be chasing some mythical voter who doesn't exist, rather than listening to those it has. There is the odd flicker of the positivity and capability so many of us hoped for: its trade deals with the US and India, Ukraine, and how Starmer has stepped up to lead the Coalition of the Willing and support Ukraine. Wes Streeting's immediate deal with the junior doctors was impressive, but his capitulation to the vocal minority on trans healthcare simply baffling. There is arguably little more British than letting people be who they are. And by also denigrating migrants, LGBT+ people, and women – who will inevitably have to pick up the slack when care companies cannot afford to pay for British workers and hike prices accordingly – this feels like a very un-British Labour Party. Most shamingly of all is the news that the UK's reputation as Europe's leading country on LGBT+ human rights is gone. In 2015, we were top with 86 per cent. This week, we have dropped to 46 per cent – in no small part thanks to baffling white noise nonsense around loos and trans people, which successive polls show Britain at large doesn't care about in the slightest. Nigel Farage and his policy-free pot-stirring – rightly called out by the otherwise ghastly Rupert Lowe, but even a stopped clock is right twice a day – are not where the UK should be heading. Labour has four years until the next general election. Why on earth isn't it promoting forward-thinking policies and communicating to the public with even a modicum of skill? Why isn't it at least trying to make a positive difference to the country's lives, rather than dealing in the populist fear wafting across the ocean from the USA. As the local elections showed, Reform voters won't be won over by mystifying attempts to out-light blue the light blue. Reform continues to lead Labour in the polls, by five points this week, and eight points last week. A new poll by Survation finds voting intention for Reform at 30 per cent. Meanwhile, those who held their nose for Labour previously are joining the floods heading to the Lib Dems and the Greens. Reform voters do not want Labour. And there are other parties for Labour votes to join, however much Starmer and his team refuse to believe it. In 2025, the Conservative Party is almost annihilated. Unless the government looks to its voters, whether lifelong or borrowed, by 2029 Labour may join it in the wreckage.

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