Labour must submit to EU rules to fulfil manifesto pledge

Telegraph

21-02-2025

Labour is considering aligning with multiple European Union rules to fulfil a manifesto pledge on reduced border checks.
The Telegraph understands that the Government's negotiating team has privately accepted that full alignment with the EU's food safety regulations is required in order to ease agricultural exports to the bloc.
Senior European sources warned that Britain would have to make concessions on the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice to strike an agreement.
This would be a concession on a previous UK request for a New Zealand-style arrangement, under which EU officials would recognise British standards as equivalent to their own.
Agreeing to follow EU legislation on food safety rules will restrict the Government from pursuing breakthroughs in genetic engineering of crops, one of the Brexit victories secured by the Conservatives.
Lord Frost, the former Brexit negotiator, said: 'Labour say they won't rejoin the single market, yet accepting EU laws and courts is a fundamental aspect of how the single market works.
'Labour are taking us back into the EU orbit by stealth and hoping you won't notice till it's too late. Don't let them get away with it.'
After early negotiations, British negotiators believe the relationship between Switzerland and Brussels will serve as the most likely outcome for the envisaged EU-UK sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) agreement.
Lord Frost added: 'Starmer is simply not being honest with the British people. This deal is very much like that agreed with the Swiss, yet a couple of years back Starmer said 'a Swiss deal simply wouldn't work for Britain'.
'Labour have had to drop their political fantasies and face the brutal reality of how the EU negotiates. They now realise that the only way they get what they want on food and animal trade is to accept EU laws enforced by the Commission and Court – to give away our powers to set our own laws. That price is not worth paying.'
The veterinary deal would have the advantage of reducing the number of border checks necessary on goods and animals exported from Britain to Northern Ireland. The checks were introduced as part of the Brexit deal to prevent a hard land border with EU member Ireland.
But that would not undo the impact the deal was having on Northern Ireland's links to the rest of the UK, senior DUP figures warned, or change the fact that Northern Ireland remained subject to EU law despite Brexit.
'Ruthlessly pragmatic'
'It may have the effect of reducing some checks on the Irish Sea border but it doesn't get rid of it or of its Union eroding effects,' said Lord Dodds.
'It would not solve the fundamental problem which is that in 300 areas of our economic life and society, laws are made by a foreign entity in its interests for part of the United Kingdom without democratic input from anyone elected in Northern Ireland. It wouldn't deal with all the remaining areas like human rights, immigration, state aid or VAT, for instance.'
The revelations came after Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Brexit minister, declared he would be 'ruthlessly pragmatic' in the renegotiations with Brussels.
Labour's manifesto promised to 'improve the UK's trade and investment relationship with the EU, by tearing down unnecessary barriers to trade'.
To satisfy Brussels's demand for a youth mobility scheme as the price for the reset, Labour is understood to be considering offering to replicate the arrangements between the UK and Australia.
The plan would see tens of thousands of young Europeans arriving in the UK to live and work for two years, with a possible extension.
The exact numbers would be capped, according to Home Office concerns of immigration figures.
Under a reciprocal scheme Britons aged 18 to 30 would be given the same rights in EU countries.
However, the offer is likely to run into opposition in Brussels, with a number of member states insistent on a more beneficial package for Europeans wanting to work and study in Britain.
The EU has previously proposed plans for an uncapped scheme that would see Europeans benefit from exemptions to the NHS surcharge and domestic university fees.
A youth mobility scheme was listed as an 'offensive interest' in a diplomatic document circulated to EU member states as the bloc's negotiating position was being formulated.