25 February 2025
Keir Starmer can’t stay away from the EU, meeting Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission President, Brussels, October 2024. Photo Simon Dawson / Number 10 / Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
The Starmer government intends to offer EU member countries a youth mobility scheme as part of its “reset” with the EU. This fits with several policy initiatives to realign Britain with the EU – by stealth if necessary.
Tens of thousands of young EU students and workers would be allowed to come to live and work here for up to three years. The scheme would also allow young Britons aged 18-30 similar access to EU countries.
Caving in
The EU has been demanding that a youth movement scheme is key to a deal they hope to agree at a summit meeting in London on 19 May. Until very recently, the government rejected any such scheme, but it is now caving in to the EU demand; this is likely to prove all too typical.
The EU is also demanding that Britain ends checks on the export and import of foods and plant products, and eases veterinary checks. On top of that, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark are demanding a fishing deal that would preserve until 2031 the EU’s 75 per cent share of all the fish caught in British waters.
Single market
A leaked EU planning paper, reported in the Daily Telegraph on 19 December, cheerfully noted that the logical end point of Labour’s negotiation “would require a different model for cooperation, ie participation by the UK in the single market and/or customs union”.
To help achieve the government’s drive to get Britain back into the EU’s orbit Starmer has created a Europe Hub in the Home Office. Over the past few months his government has specifically refused to rule out Britain’s return to being subject to EU laws. And like Starmer, Chancellor Rachel Reeves is keen to get close to her EU counterparts.