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Sir Keir Starmer has been criticised for lacking ambition in his bid to reset relations with the EU, after he rejected the idea of 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 that would make it easier for young people from the UK and the European Union to travel, when he held a joint press conference with German chancellor Olaf Scholz on Wednesday.
Despite Sir Keir having described the renegotiation as “a once-in-a-generation opportunity”, there are concerns that he is not willing to be flexible on a proposal that is strongly supported in the EU.
It was Sir Keir’s fifth meeting with Mr 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 said the proposed treaty with Germany would be 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 (trade and cooperation agreement) 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 TCA 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 Party MP Caroline Lucas, who campaigned to stop Brexit, posted on X/Twitter: “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, said: “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 David Frost claimed that Sir Keir’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 TCA in a way that starts making us subject to EU law once again. That’s not moving on, it’s moving back.”
Sir Keir disappointed 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 EU.
There were reports that he was planning to “leave the door open” on the youth mobility scheme, which is strongly supported by the Germans, and would even be willing to consider free movement of people in a wider sense. But a Downing Street source said this was “not true” and “nonsense”.
The source said: “We are not considering it; there are no plans for this or any work being done on it.”
Sir Keir said the new UK-Germany treaty would result in “deeper links on science, technology, development, people, business [and] culture” and that it would provide “a boost to our trading relations”.
A new defence agreement will build on the “already formidable” cooperation between the two countries, he added.
He said that the treaty is a “once-in-a-generation chance to deliver for working people in Britain and in Germany”, adding: “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 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,” he said. “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 already established “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.”
He added: “There is 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 set to travel to Paris for the start of the Paralympics and to hold talks with French president Emmanuel Macron, where he will continue to pursue his reset agenda.
