PM continues push for ‘reset’ of UK-EU relations in talks with Macron

Sir Keir Starmer is continuing his push for a ‘reset’ of Britain’s relations with the EU during talks with French President Emmanuel Macron today. The Prime Minister is in Paris after travelling from Berlin yesterday as he undertakes two days of meetings in European capitals in his bid to ‘turn a corner on Brexit ‘.

He was due to hold a breakfast meeting with French business leaders this morning before a summit with Mr Macron at the Elysee Palace later. Sir Keir and Mr Macron were among the audience at the Paralympic Games opening ceremony in Paris last night. Speaking in Berlin yesterday, Sir Keir insisted he was not ‘reversing Brexit’ despite his desire for a ‘reset’ in UK-EU relations and closer ties with the bloc.

But senior Tories expressed fears the Labour premier, who once backed a second EU referendum, could put Britain ‘under the control of Brussels by the backdoor’. During his visit to the German capital, Sir Keir left the door open to the return of free movement for under-30s.

The PM refused to rule out introducing a ‘backpackers and baristas’ scheme allowing 18 to 30-year-olds from across the EU to move to the UK for work, travel or study for a number of years. It is a key demand of EU members in exchange for a closer trading relationship.

The PM, speaking at a press conference at the German Chancellery yesterday, said he had ‘no plans’ for such a scheme, but then refused to completely rule it out when pressed by reporters. He said: ‘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 within the EU or with the EU is in that context and within those frameworks.’

In a joint press conference yesterday in Berlin, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pointedly said that ‘contact’ between Germans and Britons has ‘declined massively after Brexit and the Covid 19 pandemic’. ‘We share similar views on this, and this is why we want to intensify the exchanges between Germany and the UK,’ he said. It came after Nils Schmid, Mr Scholz’s foreign affairs spokesman, suggested a youth mobility deal would be the price of closer ties.

He told BBC Radio 4 it was a ‘major feature of our wish list’, and not about ‘opening the walls of labour migration’, but about facilitating a student exchange. Germany’s ambassador to the UK this morning said an agreement with the EU on youth mobility ‘should be in the British interest’. Miguel Berger told BBC Radio 4: ‘There are many misunderstandings about what youth mobility really means. It is not freedom of movement, it has nothing to do with migration. It means that young people, who are really those who have most lost because of Brexit, that they have the possibility to come to the EU, to come to the UK, for a limited amount of time, and then they will leave. So, it’s enhancing the possibilities for young people. That’s what we want. And it’s not only Germany, I can tell you all the 27 in the EU want to enhance that.’

Mr Berger added: ‘Youth mobility should also be in the British interest. Young people from this country might want to live for a year in Berlin or in Madrid or in Paris, and the youth mobility scheme would open that possibility. I think we all could gain, for example, by a veterinary agreement, which would reduce prices in the supermarket.’ Sir Keir’s comments in Berlin sparked warnings that he was trying to put Britain ‘under the control of Brussels by the backdoor’.

Tory former home secretary Dame Priti Patel told the Mail: ‘The PM, who constantly argued for a second referendum, cannot be trusted to protect Brexit. He’s always wanted to bring us closer into the EU’s orbit and put us under the control of Brussels by the backdoor. Labour’s plans to relax migration controls with the EU would start a slippery slope towards closer alignment and the return of freedom of movement. Given his feeble track record in negotiations and rolling over so readily to his trade union paymasters, Keir Starmer cannot be trusted to safeguard something as precious as our sovereignty.’

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