PRIME MINISTER Sir Keir Starmer endorsed a new treaty with Germany today as a first step in binding Britain closer to the European Union once more.
The pact, agreed in principle during a visit to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin, will cover trade, business, science, technology and development and be formally signed early next year.
Sir Keir claimed it represented a “once-in-a-generation chance to deliver for working people in Britain and in Germany.”
He said it would help deliver economic growth and create new jobs in both countries.
The agreement forms part of Labour’s promised “reset” of relations with the EU, which the PM insists will stop well short of rejoining, but the parameters of which are still obscure.
He said today that a reset “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.”
There are, however, strict limits on how far a bilateral treaty can go with a country like Germany, deeply integrated into the EU, without raising the broader relationship with Brussels.
Sir Keir denied that the deal with Berlin would represent any return to free movement across Europe, despite pressure from Germany to agree to a youth mobility scheme which also has some support among Labour voters in Britain.
He said: “We do not have plans for the youth mobility scheme, but we do have plans for a closer relationship between us and the EU.
“The treaty is a bilateral treaty, so that’s got nothing to do with youth mobility or anything like that.”
Starmer and Scholz also formulated a joint plan to tackle illegal migration, including intelligence sharing, and restated their determination to back Ukraine “for as long as it takes” in its conflict with Russia, without announcing any fresh initiatives.
Communist Party of Britain general secretary Rob Griffiths warned: “Starmer would like to do the bidding of his new corporate paymasters and undermine Brexit.
“Big business — especially the City of London — seeks to remove any barriers to the movement of capital.
“If Starmer capitulates to EU rules, this would mean, among other things, no major extensions of public ownership, no restoration to the Scottish and Welsh parliaments of industrial assistance powers and no dismantling of VAT.”
