Keir Starmer was last night warned he would betray Brexit if he agreed a deal that put the UK back under the control of the EU.
The Prime Minister is today set to sign an agreement at what has been dubbed his ‘Surrender Summit’ that will mean Britain must once more follow EU laws and abide by its judges’ rulings.
He is also poised to hand millions of young Europeans the right to live, study and work here for up to three years, risking his pledge to cut migration. And the PM – who backed Remain then campaigned for a second referendum to undo the Leave vote – is expected to ‘sell out’ Britain’s fishermen by allowing French boats continued access to UK coastal waters.
Talks were going down to the wire last night after the EU made surprise 11th-hour demands for the fishing rights to last a decade or more. In return, checks on lorries taking food to the continent would be lifted. Defence firms will gain access to a £126 billion EU-wide weapons fund – but British taxpayers face having to pay millions for the privilege.
As the wrangling continued over the ‘reset’ deal to be unveiled at London’s Lancaster House, the PM was urged not to give in to the EU’s demands or give up the Brexit freedoms that 17.4 million voted for.
Shadow Foreign Secretary Dame Priti Patel told the Mail: ‘Labour’s great Brexit betrayal consists of them backsliding on our freedoms and hard-won sovereignty. Britain needs Starmer to hold strong against the EU’s brinkmanship, grow a spine and for once, put our national interest first and not concede to the demands of Brussels.’
Writing in this newspaper, Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride said the expected agreement to abide by EU food standards ‘would be a betrayal of the Brexit vote, pure and simple’.
The Prime Minister is today set to sign an agreement at what has been dubbed his ‘Surrender Summit’ that will mean Britain must once more follow EU laws and abide by its judges’ rulings. Pictured: Keir Starmer with Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission
Starmer is also poised to hand millions of young Europeans the right to live, study and work here for up to three years, risking his pledge to cut migration
Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride (pictured) said that the expected agreement to abide by EU food standards ‘would be a betrayal of the Brexit vote, pure and simple’
The Tories also urged Sir Keir not to cave in to French demands for long-term access to UK waters for European trawlers, and keep an exclusive access to a zone around the coast for British fishermen.
Shadow environment secretary Victoria Atkins said: ‘We are deeply concerned by the reports that Labour looks to surrender our fishing rights to the EU at their summit, and that is why we are today setting out our red lines for any deal.
‘The Conservatives have always stood up for our coastal communities, and our fishing industries. Labour must not throw our fishing rights overboard in their desperation to bail out their failing fiscal policies.’
Reform leader Nigel Farage told the Mail: ‘Opening up our borders to millions of people in the EU after Starmer’s speech last Monday will make Red Wall voters doubt Labour even more.
It’s clear Labour can’t be trusted to secure our borders. The idea of British soldiers under an EU flag will be hated in the Red Wall too. This is a surrender deal by Starmer.’
Sir Keir even faced a backlash from his own MPs who fear voters in the Red Wall will be angered by the expected plan to set up a youth mobility scheme.
Jo White, MP for Bassetlaw and head of the Red Wall group of Labour MPs, told The Daily Telegraph: ‘We tighten immigration with one hand and potentially loosen the strings with the other.’
Shadow Foreign Secretary Dame Priti Patel (pictured) told the Mail: ‘Labour’s great Brexit betrayal consists of them backsliding on our freedoms and hard-won sovereignty. She also urged Starmer to ‘grow a spine’ and put Britain’s ‘national interest first’
Reform leader Nigel Farage told the Mail: ‘Opening up our borders to millions of people in the EU after Starmer’s speech last Monday will make Red Wall voters doubt Labour even more. It’s clear Labour can’t be trusted to secure our borders. This is a surrender deal by Starmer’
As the wrangling continued over the ‘reset’ deal to be unveiled at London ’s Lancaster House, the PM was urged not to give in to the EU’s demands or give up the Brexit freedoms that 17.4 million voted for
She added: ‘If this just becomes a way of overseas kids filling the low-paid job vacancies in London rather than looking to see how young people from areas like mine could be opened up to opportunities and experiences that they would never have otherwise dreamed of, then I would really question the value of it.’
Veteran Labour MP Graham Stringer said accepting EU rules on food ‘completely undermines the whole reason for being out’ and is ‘definitely a betrayal’.
In a round of interviews yesterday morning as talks continued, Britain’s lead negotiator Nick Thomas-Symonds admitted the UK would have to accept EU rules on food standards as part of a deal to cut red tape for exporters.
Under so-called dynamic alignment, EU laws would have to be placed on the UK statute book again and Britain would again be placed under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice.
Veteran Labour MP Graham Stringer (pictured) said accepting EU rules on food ‘completely undermines the whole reason for being out’ and is ‘definitely a betrayal’
Under so-called dynamic alignment, EU laws would have to be placed on the UK statute book again and Britain would again be placed under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice (pictured)
Cabinet Office minister Mr Thomas-Symonds told the BBC: ‘We don’t come at this from an ideological perspective, we come from a practical perspective. Where it is in our national interest to align on common standards to make sure we get far easier trade… businesses that frankly have had to stop trading with the EU because of the red tape, can start trading with the EU again.’
He also failed to confirm that there would be a cap on the youth mobility scheme demanded by Brussels, raising the prospect of millions of young adults moving to Britain to flee high unemployment on the continent.
He would say only that the scheme would be ‘smart and controlled’, adding: ‘Anything that was agreed on youth mobility – which by the way would be opportunities for young British people to experience different cultures, to travel and work – would be consistent with the objective of the migration White Paper, which is to bring the level of net migration down.’
Sources said last night that outstanding issues remained on both sides and conversations would continue overnight.
