ANDREW PIERCE: Unelected. Obsessive. In thrall to Alastair Campbell. Malevolent trio who are hellbent on reversing Brexit

A year after the UK left the EU in January 2020, we left Erasmus, the exchange program that allows British students to study abroad at European universities paying the same fees as their domestic peers.

Given that twice as many EU students come to study in the UK than the other way around, the scheme costs the British government more than most of its EU counterparts, around £200 million a year.

Yesterday, when Brexit secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds announced we would be re-entering the system in 2027, he made a big deal about the fact that he had negotiated a 30 per cent cut, meaning it would only cost us… wait for it… £570m for the first year!

This latest development is not only further evidence that Reunited Labor are determined to return us to the bosom of Brussels, but also that they are prepared to do so at any cost.

Keir Starmer, a firebrand Remain member who engineered Labour’s inevitable plan for a second Brexit referendum (which was roundly rejected at the 2019 General Election), is embarking on a capitulation deal. And Thomas-Symonds, a respected figure among Labor MPs, will also be responsible for raising the white flag.

When the Cabinet met earlier this month for the first time since Rachel Reeves’s disastrous November Budget, Starmer welcomed the new face to the meeting. Ministers have been told Thomas-Symonds, who also serves as Paymaster, will now join on a permanent basis.

The Prime Minister praised the ‘significant work’ Thomas-Symonds did on the EU ‘renewal deal’, which saw the UK make a series of painful concessions on visas and fishing in exchange for the removal of some minor EU restrictions on trade.

Thomas-Symonds, who has been a friend of Starmer since running his leadership campaign in 2019, is also the architect of the controversial plan to revive ‘free movement’ of under-30s across the EU to Britain.

His arrival in the Cabinet, almost 18 months after Labour’s landslide election victory, confirms the worst kept secret in Westminster. It will be part of Starmer’s last desperate throw of the dice to shore up his precarious support among his overwhelmingly European supporters.

The evidence is mounting rapidly. Two weeks ago, Starmer’s closest political ally David Lammy said it was “obvious” that leaving the European Union was “badly damaging to our economy”, adding that although a customs union with the EU was not “currently” Labor Party policy, Türkiye was benefiting from it.

The key word of the Minister of Justice and the Deputy Prime Minister here was ‘right now’.

Momentum is clearly building. Earlier this month more than a dozen Labor MPs voted in favor of a House of Commons motion calling for the UK to rejoin the customs union.

The Liberal Democrat Bill (which had been tied at 100 votes each before Deputy Leader Caroline Nokes voted in support) will now require the government to begin negotiations on the issue.

This victory will be music to the ears of the group that secretly plans to return Britain to the bosom of Brussels, not by winning the argument. The likes of Baroness (Minouche) Shafiq, a former deputy governor of the Bank of England, the Prime Minister’s new chief economic adviser and supporter of closer ties with the EU, insist the customs union will make it easier for British companies to trade with the EU.

But it would also mean that we would no longer be able to negotiate our own trade deals, and would almost certainly require the termination of agreements already signed with countries such as Australia and India.

It is worth noting that every member of the current Cabinet voted to remain in the EU and supported Labour’s manifesto commitment to a second referendum in 2019.

Tim Allan, director of communications at 10 Downing Street, worked there for 15 months when Tony Blair was Prime Minister.

This rogues gallery also includes Attorney-General Lord Hermer, a human rights lawyer and close friend of Starmer. Starmer once joked that his dream legislation would be the ‘European Union (Can We Please Go Back?) Act’.

But I can tell you that the loudest voice in Starmer’s ears for a return to the EU is not even elected politicians.

They include Tim Allan, the last director of communications at 10 Downing Street, who worked there for 15 months when Tony Blair was Prime Minister.

Allan’s boss and mentor at Downing Street was Alastair Campbell in the first round and they remained close, united by the burning desire to drag Britain back into the EU.

They also worked closely during the Blair years with Labor ‘strategist’ Tom Baldwin, who published a hagiography of Starmer last year and regularly conducts soft-soap interviews with senior ministers in the press. He speaks frequently to Campbell and Allan and is one of Starmer’s closest unpaid political advisers.

Baldwin, a member of the Prime Minister’s close-knit inner circle, was with Starmer on election night at multimillionaire Labor donor and media mogul Lord Alli’s Covent Garden penthouse.

It was Alli, of course, who gave the Prime Minister more than £32,000 of free clothes and designer glasses; These gifts sparked this embattled government’s first – but not the last – infamous fight.

Like Baldwin, Alli is a diehard Re-engager who sees Brexit as a disaster.

Allan, Alli and Baldwin are calling on Starmer to follow the Liberal Democrats’ lead and launch a do-or-die campaign and embrace a wholesale return to the EU.

A well-placed government source told me: ‘Campbell and Baldwin in particular are almost hysterical about returning to the EU. They hate Brexit and the people who voted for Brexit; although most Brexit leavers are traditional Labor voters.

More than double the number of EU students coming to study in the UK, 2020 figures show

‘Campbell speaks to Starmer through Baldwin and Allan. He constantly dreams of a new referendum. But these people will drag Starmer by the nose into electoral oblivion if they can persuade him to turn his back on the people who voted Leave.’

Baldwin and his collaborators have already achieved some success. Allan, for example, is known for insisting that Starmer no longer ignores Brexit in his speeches, stating that it is as bad for Britain as the constant refrain of ’14 years of Tory chaos’.

Starmer has repeatedly denied there is a plan to turn back the clock. But with Labor remaining weak in the opinion polls, these three Rejoiners saw their chance.

Their strategy is to force Starmer to once again submit to the yoke of Brussels in order to neutralize the electoral influence of pro-Brussels parties.

Just yesterday, Baldwin wrote an op-ed in The Guardian in which he warned Starmer that if he did not act proactively in renewing ties with Brussels, his leadership rivals would take advantage of his hesitation.

“The danger is clear,” Baldwin wrote. ‘If Starmer ignores more meaningful steps towards a closer relationship with the EU, he allows rivals to occupy the space where the overwhelming majority of Labor MPs, members and voters are located.’

Since Allan took over as communications chief in early September, he and his allies have argued that the collapse in Labor support since the General Election has seen more voters lost to the Liberal Democrats, the Greens, the SNP in Scotland and Plaid Cymru in Wales rather than Nigel Farage’s staunchly pro-Brexit UK Reform.

The new fight for Brexit comes at a time of rising tensions between Allan and his No.10 chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, who until recently was Starmer’s powerful adviser.

Unlike Allan & Co, McSweeney is a fierce opponent of the plan to move closer to the EU.

He was blamed by some for last month’s botched briefing against overambitious Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who ‘Downing Street sources’ told the BBC was plotting to oust Starmer.

In October, Streeting blamed Brexit for the UK’s low productivity and growth. Quoting Oscar Wilde’s lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, Streeting said: ‘I’m glad Brexit is now an issue we dare to mention.’

Supporting the customs union would represent another clear manifesto breach and risk damaging relations with EU-hating Donald Trump, always a high priority at No 10.

Starmer may conclude that the only way to beat the rebels back from his door after May’s local elections, which are expected to be disastrous for Labour, is to sell out the 17.4 million people who voted Leave in the EU Referendum.

He can save his life with the parliamentary party. But it will be a gift to the Reform and Conservatives, who will ruthlessly exploit Labour’s greatest betrayal at the next General Election.