Brexiteer fury as EU issues demands to Keir Starmer in return for new closer relationship
Brussels has set out precisely what they want if Keir Starmer is to secure his hoped-for closer relationship with the EU.
The EU is demanding more rights for its citizens living in Britain, and full implementation of agreements around Northern Ireland, if Sir Keir Starmer is to receive the closer relationship he is lobbying for.
Since coming to office, Sir Keir has been open in his desire to reopen Brexit and "repair" Britain’s relationship with the continent.
However the EU now say they want specific wins in return for allowing any progress on Sir Keir’s key foreign policy ambition.
They have now issued eight demands that the UK must fulfil in order to gain closer access to their markets, ordering Sir Keir to “demonstrate real UK government commitment” to honouring its Brexit divorce deal with Brussels.
The list includes a request to fully implement already negotiated parts of the treaty on Northern Ireland.
It also orders that the rights of EU citizens living in Britain be improved, as EU nations claim that large numbers of their citizens living in the UK are being turned down for jobs or rental properties over the uncertainty surrounding their immigration status.
One diplomat told the Financial Times: “This needs to be fixed before we talk about cooperation in new areas.”
Several diplomats have also told the paper that the bloc’s priorities include a new freedom of movement deal for young people, allowing them to work and study in the UK, despite the inevitable fury this would cause in Britain.
The list of demands also sets out the possibility of a new EU-UK agreement that would pass deals on mutual recognition of professional qualifications.
The concerns and desires of the EU were raised by vice-president Marcos Sefcovic at his recent meeting with the Government’s minister for European Relations Nick Thomas-Symonds.
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The commission is currently pressing ahead with the threat of legal action against the UK, first made in 2020, over the treatment of EU citizens.
Under the last Tory government, the Home Office insisted that those with pre-settled status had to really for full settled status once they had been in the country for five years.
The high court ruled that the Government’s position was “unlawful”, and the European Commission has now given the UK two months to respond to its concerns.
The list of demands from Brussels has already sparked fury from Brexiteers, with former EU negotiator Lord Frost saying Labour must not fall for their usual negotiating tactics.
Lord Frost said: “If Labour falls for this they will be in a weak position right from the start. It's the standard Commission playbook: 'we can't talk about subject B until you have satisfied us on subject A’".
“You then only satisfy them on A by a series of concessions, which the British side is all too willing to make anyway to 'win goodwill'.
“Of course it's all too likely Labour don't mind being in a weak position because they already intend to make concessions.”
Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice told the Express: “Once again the EU are acting like bully boys.
“Truth is that the EU Settlement Status scheme, which we all thought had been closed, is still open and being abused on a colossal scale by unscrupulous actors.
"As for Northern Ireland, their stance is nonsense. The disgraced Windsor Framework was a con sold by Sunak and DUP to us all. It has effectively locked us into EU alignment.”
Last weekend it emerged that Sir Keir discussed reintroducing freedom of movement for young Spanish citizens.
