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Daily Mail
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Minsters beg European countries to allow Britons to use e-gates ahead of summer holiday exodus
Ministers are begging European countries to allow Britons to use e-gates before the summer holidays because the deal agreed with Brussels will not start soon enough. Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds has written to European counterparts including Greece urging them to allow Brits to use e-gates 'now'. In a letter to Greece's deputy foreign minister, he wrote: 'It would be greatly appreciated if Greece could also offer access to e-gates where they are available at the border as soon as possible, including on a temporary basis now.' Mr Thomas-Symonds added: 'Being able to use e-gates at Greece's airports would be a significant symbol of the friendship our two countries share.' Announcing his reset with Brussels, Sir Keir Starmer said the move to allow British travellers to use European e-gates was one of the key elements of the deal. The Government said there would not be any legal barriers to British travellers using more e-passport gates in EU countries. The Prime Minster said: 'This partnership helps British holidaymakers, who will be able to use e-gates when they travel to Europe, ending those huge queues at passport control.' But the Association of British Travel Agents has said the deal 'won't impact this summer'. British tourists are expected to have to endure passport-stamping queues in most EU countries until at least October and possibly well into 2026 as the e-gates implementation will be phased. So ministers have started asking the individual countries instead to allow early access to their e-gates. Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel said: 'The Prime Minister has lied to British public yet again. 'His claim that he joyfully made on Monday that British tourists would benefit from his EU surrender agreement by getting through e-gates when they travel to Europe was just another blatant Starmer lie. 'The facts are as follows: Europe has followed in Britain's footsteps by developing an electronic entry and exit system and this has been under way for a number of years and is due to fully launch in October. 'It is a fact that some airports already allow UK passport holders to use e-gates, and this new agreement doesn't guarantee anything further. 'Each EU country retains the right to decide individually, meaning there's no certainty, no timeline, and no real improvement secured.'
Daily Mail
20-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Tories mock Keir Starmer's 'bogus' claim that his Brexit 'reset' deal will allow Brits to use e-gates at EU airports... as many already do
Sir Keir Starmer is being mocked for his 'bogus' claim that Brits will be allowed to use e-gates at EU airports as a result of his Brexit 'reset' deal with the EU. The Prime Minister boasted his agreement with Brussels, signed yesterday, would end 'huge queues' for holidaymakers at passport control in Europe. But bemused Tories have accused Sir Keir of a 'misleading' claim as they pointed out that many EU airports already allow Brits to use e-gates. They also echoed warnings that new border measures, due to be introduced by the EU later this year, could actually make airport queues worse for Brits. And they highlighted how decisions on allowing Brits to use e-gates will still be for individual EU countries - despite the PM's deal with the European Commission. Senior Tory MP Dame Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary, blasted Sir Keir's claim as 'just nonsense'. Conservative peer Lord David Frost, the UK's former Brexit negotiator, said the PM's agreement on e-gates 'really doesn't amount to anything'. Sir Keir hailed his e-gates agreement with the European Commission as one of the biggest wins of his 'reset' of the UK's post-Brexit relations with Brussels. The PM's wide-ranging deal also included an end to checks on British food exports to the continent, the linking of UK and EU electricity markets, and a new security pact. But Sir Keir, a Remainer who previously wanted a second EU referendum, bowed to French demands to extend access to UK fishing waters for EU fleets in exchange. Many airports in Spain and Portugal already allow Brits to use e-gates, as do those in Rome and Brussels. The PM has also acknowledged it will still be down to individual EU countries to decide whether to grant use of e-gates to UK travellers, despite his deal with Brussels. Meanwhile, experts have warned greater use of e-gates by Brits will make little difference unless it is accompanied by further work to ease the impact of new EU border measures. The EU's new Entry/Exit System (EES), which is set to belatedly come into force in October, will be an automated IT system for registering travellers from non-EU countries, including the UK, each time they cross a border into or out of the EU. It will replace the current manual stamping of passports for visitors to Europe's borderless Schengen area who are not nationals of EU or Schengen countries. Brits are likely to have their fingerprints and facial images taken the first time they cross a border into the EU, once the new system is in operation. There are fears this will cause huge queues at EU airports, as well as delays at Dover, Folkestone and London's St Pancras station, where French border checks are carried out before people embark on cross-Channel journeys. Dame Priti told GB News of the PM's e-gates agreement: 'The EU have a digital system coming in anyway... which is basically their equivalent to the digital border system that we put in place in the UK, because the world has gone digital. 'And yet, the Government and Starmer claim that this is some great win, and by the way, when that comes in in October, it will lead to queues because we have to provide our biometrics and lots of personal data. So this is just wrong. It's misleading.' Fellow Tory MP Sir David Davis, the former Brexit secretary, told the same channel: 'The e-gates are national decisions. What the EU says is there'll be no legal block. 'In other words, they won't intervene to make it worse. And when I've been to Europe the last couple of years, I've gone through the e-gates. It's a bogus thing.' Andrew Griffith, the shadow business secretary, said: 'So the Government's talked quite a lot about e-gates. And that was another sort of punishment that was imposed on the UK after Brexit. 'It wasn't to do with Brexit itself, it was a consequence of the Commission and certain member states beliefs. But there are many countries that have access to e-gates. 'Indeed, some countries already allow access for British people to e-gates. So the PM is falsely claiming that to be a benefit of the deal.' Industry minister Sarah Jones this morning declined to promise that Brits will experience shorter passport queues across the EU this summer. She told LBC: 'We've swept away any barriers to doing this. There is no legal reason why companies won't agree. 'I can't give you a guarantee on exact timings, because there is infrastructure that, of course, all our airports will have to put in place.'
