DID anyone fool themselves into thinking that a government led by Keir Starmer, who spent much of his time as Shadow Brexit secretary pushing for a second referendum, would really give up on EU membership so easily as he claimed to have done?
The Prime Minister insists that Brexit has been done and will not be undone.
Plans to allow under 30s freedom of movement from EU to Britain would be yet another betrayal of hard fought Brexit[/caption]
Yet week by week it becomes clear he wants to create an ever-closer union with the EU, step by step, perhaps until we reach the point where it becomes a mere tidying up exercise to rejoin.
A year ago Rishi Sunak’s government rejected overtures from the EU for a Youth Mobility Scheme, which would grant the freedom for 18 to 30-year-olds to live and work in Britain for up to four years.
There was very good reason for doing so — it would completely undermine Britain’s new-found freedom to set its own migration policy.
It is not that many people in Britain want to close the door entirely to Europeans who want to come and work here — they remain free to apply for a work visa, and in many cases where they have special skills or there is a shortage of essential workers they are welcomed with open arms.
But an open Youth Mobility Scheme would take us back to the days of uncontrolled migration, when any EU citizen could come and set up in Britain without any intention of working to support themselves, apart from perhaps selling the Big Issue.
Flooded labour market
We saw what happened last time around: free movement undermined our own labour market, suppressing the wages of low-paid workers. Why does anyone think it would be any different with a Youth Mobility Scheme?
The age group that would be involved would be the same as that which flooded the labour market while we were EU members.
Never a body to take no for an answer, the EU kept pressing on a
Youth Mobility Scheme and now seems to have found a willing pair of ears in the shape of Chancellor Rachel Reeves.
Such a scheme will reportedly be on the table when Starmer and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen meet in London in the next week to discuss a “reset” in Britain’s relations with the EU.
To be fair to Labour ministers, not all are on board. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is said to be opposed, realising what it will mean for already out-of-control migration figures.
But she is likely to remain a siren voice among the Government’s EU enthusiasts.
And the revival of free movement is not the only sign of capitulation.
The Government also seems to be moving towards “dynamic alignment” on food standards and carbon taxes — which in practice will mean accepting whatever growth-destroying regulations Brussels wants to throw at us.
The Government seems to be considering, too, extending the right of EU fishermen to access UK waters — eradicating one of the benefits of Brexit.
Edward Heath disastrously signed away Britain’s fish as a “common resource” when he went begging to join what was then the European Economic Community in 1973.
We saw what happened last time around: free movement undermined our own labour market, suppressing the wages of low-paid workers
Now, it seems they will be up for grabs long after we have left the bloc.
Starmer’s reset was supposed to be about freeing up trade — easing the bureaucracy which the EU heaped on UK exporters as punishment for us daring to leave the bloc.
Youth Mobility Scheme now seems to have found a willing pair of ears in the shape of Chancellor Rachel Reeves[/caption]
The Government seems to be considering, too, extending the right of EU fishermen to access UK waters[/caption]
But now, to no great surprise, it seems to be about rather more than that. The reset is yet one more effort by the EU to draw us back into its orbit of influence, to prevent us from becoming what it most fears: a successful, free market, free trading “Singapore-on-Thames” moored 20 miles off Calais.
There is scant sign at the moment of Britain seizing that opportunity.
Indeed, we have a Government which seems intent on outdoing the EU on things such as labour regulation and Net Zero targets — Starmer’s Government, for example, wants to drive new petrol and diesel cars off the road by 2030, five years earlier than the EU.
Reeves is right that the UK economy is in desperate need of growth.
But she is trapped in a world of officials, whether from the Treasury, the Office for Budgetary Responsibility or academia who remain convinced Britain can only function as part of the EU.
The Chancellor has been swayed, it seems, by a claim by a think-tank, the Centre for European Reform, that a Youth Mobility Scheme would boost the UK economy by between 0.4 and 0.45 per cent over a ten-year period.
Squeal with horror
We have been subjected to this kind of fantasy economical modelling for the past decade.
What happens is that a think-tank builds a computer model which seemingly counts every possible benefit of being in the EU while discounting every possible benefit of being outside — then, hey presto, comes up with an answer suggesting that we would be better off in.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is said to be opposed to the youth mobility scheme, realising what it will mean for already out-of-control migration figures[/caption]
To sum up the thinking of these kind of people, they insist — quite rightly — that free trade with the EU is a good thing. But then they squeal with horror at the possibility of a trade deal with the US, claiming it will kill off our farmers and industry.
The contradiction between these two positions is lost on them.
The Rejoin lobby has not given up. It will carry on as long as it has breath in its body.
Don’t be surprised if by the end of this Parliament the Government is talking openly about Britain’s re-entry.
