Sir Keir Starmer has been criticised for lacking ambition in wanting to reset the UK’s relationship with the EU after he rejected free movement for under-30s and rejoining the students’ Erasmus scheme even before talks got underway.
The prime minister made it clear he was not open to a deal on making it easier for young people from the UK and EU to travel when he held a joint press conference with German chancellor Olaf Scholz today.
Despite describing the renegotiation as “a once in a generation opportunity” there were concerns that he was not willing to be flexible on a proposal which is strongly supported in the EU.
Sir Keir was having his fifth meeting with Scholz since becoming prime minister as the two opened talks on a Germany/ UK bilateral deal to be completed by the end of this year.
The prime minister made it clear that the deal with Berlin was the first step in an overhaul of Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal which has created visa and trade barriers for the UK since it departed the EU in 2020.
Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesperson Layla Moran said: “This is a positive step forward after years of the Conservatives trashing the UK’s relationship with Europe.
“But the new Government needs to be more ambitious about rebuilding stronger ties with our European allies.
“That should start with agreeing a Youth Mobility Scheme giving young people the opportunity to easily live and work across the continent.”
Richard Kilpatrick, campaigns manager at European Movement UK, added: “For clarity the draft offer from the European Commission to the European Council is youth mobility between a single member state and the UK, it is not freedom of movement for under-30s. Nor is the TCA review a renegotiation, it is a very rigid framework with little chance of meaningful change.
“What can and should happen is a series of agreements alongside the Trade and Cooperation Agreement that will go a little way in repairing the damage caused by Brexit and show our European neighbours that we are serious about improving our relationship with the EU.
“Youth mobility is one area, participation in Erasmus+ and culturing touring visas are others. In the long run we need to stop using the future of our young people, the success of our music industry and our economic future as bargaining chips and instead review our future relationship in Europe openly and transparently. Every day, it becomes clearer that we need the independent forward-looking inquiry we have been pushing the UK government to agree to.”
Former Green MP Caroline Lucas, who campaigned to stop Brexit, Tweeted: “Beyond disappointing – when is Labour going to start offering some vision & hope for young people? Freedom of movement was a treasured gift to be celebrated, not one to be ripped away.”
Liz Webster, the founder of Save British Farming, added: “There’s something fundamentally wrong about Keir Starmer asking for a decade of power after just winning an election. And ignoring the reality that Brexit doesn’t have a majority either. “
However, former Tory Brexit minister Lord Frost claimed that Starmer’s real agenda was to reverse Brexit.
He said: “Starmer‘s ambition is not to ‘turn a corner on Brexit’. It’s to reopen all the arguments and to renegotiate the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, in a way that starts making us subject to EU law once again. That’s not moving on, it’s moving back.”
Starmer disapointed many when he insisted he was not “reversing Brexit” as he set out plans for a new treaty with Germany as part of a wider “reset” of relations with the European Union.
The prime minister, who agreed that a deal with Germany would be in place by the end of the year following talks with counterpart Olaf Scholz, said it was a “once-in-a-generation” opportunity.
Sir Keir said the new UK-Germany treaty would result in “deeper links on science, technology, development, people, business, culture” and “a boost to our trading relations”.
A new defence agreement will build on the “already formidable” co-operation between the two countries, Sir Keir said.
He said the treaty was a “once-in-a-generation chance to deliver for working people in Britain and in Germany”.
“Britain can advance its interests much more effectively when we work with friends and partners.
“This treaty is part of a wider reset, grounded in a new spirit of cooperation with our shared understanding that this will be developed at pace, and that we hope to have agreed it by the end of the year.”
The two countries also agreed to develop a “joint action plan to tackle illegal migration”.
Sir Keir’s hopes for the “wider reset” with the European Union would not amount to undoing the Brexit decision, he insisted.
“I’m absolutely clear that we do want a reset.
“I have been able to repeat that here today, a reset with Europe, a reset with the EU.
“That does not mean reversing Brexit or re-entering the single market or the customs union, but it does mean a closer relationship on a number of fronts, including the economy, including defence, including exchanges, but we do not have plans for a youth mobility scheme.”
An agreement on youth mobility has been suggested by Brussels and could be a key demand in any negotiations.
But that could be seen as a step towards the restoration of free movement and Sir Keir said he had “clear red lines” ahead of talks with the European Union on the future relationship.
He told reporters: “In relation to youth mobility, obviously, we’ve been really clear – no single market, no customs union, no free movement, no going back into the EU.
“So the discussion about a close relationship with the EU, is in that context and within those frameworks.
“I’m convinced, and I think you heard from the chancellor himself, that we can have a close relationship, notwithstanding those clear red lines that we’ve got and we’ve always had.”
Mr Scholz said: “We want to create good relations between the UK and the European Union, it can become better day by day, and we all share an interest.”
There was “reason to do everything in our power to improve relations between both countries but also the UK and the European Union”.
Following his engagements in Berlin, Sir Keir was heading to Paris for the start of the Paralympics and talks with French President Emmanuel Macron, where he will continue to pursue his reset agenda.