Keir Starmer’s post-Brexit reset with EU lacks ‘direction, definition and drive’, MPs warn
Sir Keir Starmer’s desire to reset UK-EU relations after Brexit “suffers from a lack of direction, definition and motivation”, MPs have warned in a new report.
It called on the government to end its “secrecy” about what it was seeking to salvage its “feeble” efforts to get closer to the bloc.
When the Prime Minister took office he pledged to reset Britain’s relationship with Brussels and promised to restore ties with the EU damaged by the previous Conservative government.
But MPs on the House of Commons foreign affairs select committee said the government had failed to deliver a coherent roadmap at last year’s Lancaster House summit with the EU and was at risk of making the same mistake ahead of this year’s follow-up event.
He said the UK side’s lack of clear and strategic priorities gave the impression that the EU was making more progress in the negotiations.
Dame Emily Thornberry, chair of the committee, said although the reset represented a “major step change” in government policy, the effort lacked “direction”.
“Unfortunately, despite progress in some areas, we have seen the government’s reset weakened, plagued by a lack of direction, definition and motivation,” he said.
“It feels like we are embarking on a journey with no known destination.
“The government has failed to provide timelines, milestones or priorities in many areas and does not appear to have an ambitious, strategic vision for the UK’s new relationship with the EU.”
The new report, published on Wednesday, called on the government to set out its vision for Britain’s relationship with the EU in a white paper and set up a new House of Commons EU scrutiny committee.
Sir Keir last year clinched the landmark first deal, which includes deals such as allowing British tourists to use fast-track e-gates at European airports, a 12-year extension of a deal for EU trawlers to access UK waters and an open-ended agreement to cut red tape on food and drink exports and imports.
In February, the UK and the EU announced they aimed to complete negotiations on the youth mobility plan in time for a joint summit later this year. They also want to secure a common sanitary and phytosanitary area that would apply to the movement of plants and food, and by then agree on a way to link emissions trading systems.
But talks aimed at Britain potentially joining the European Union’s new €150bn (£130bn) Security Action for Europe (Secure) rearmament fund collapsed at the end of last year.
“The exorbitant price tag for Britain’s participation in the first round of the Safe program is short-sighted, especially given the threat from Putin’s Russia,” Dame Emily said.
But he also said the UK government needed to go beyond working to “identify the problem and vaguely call for more ‘alignment'”, and criticized the EU for “shifting the crosshairs” in asking the UK to contribute financially to the bloc, while urging both sides to focus on the “big picture”.
He said: “We need to work on concrete, practical and implementable solutions together with our EU partners.
“Today’s report calls on the government to end secrecy on EU matters and sets out in a white paper exactly what it plans to do in the next phase of negotiations.
“The government must also be willing to subject its plans to appropriate parliamentary scrutiny and facilitate the establishment of a new EU scrutiny committee in the House of Commons.”
